Competition Investigations & Dawn Raids: An overview of EU and national case law

In this article, partner Nathalie Jalabert-Doury reviews and analyses the recent developments in competition inspections and dawn raids in Europe.

Extract:
In Europe and beyond, the number of dawn raids remains very high and shows no sign of slowing down. Although the pandemic backlog is now largely cleared, competition authorities are still receiving leniency applications and complaints and opening a growing number of ex-officio investigations in parallel.

At the same time, Courts are rightfully more and more attentive to fundamental rights, judicial review and the protection of private life. No surprise considering the tools that are used these days and the breadth of searches they allow: in private homes and across personal devices and data sets, not just professional ones.

The need to design and implement effective dawn raid responses is, therefore, more important than ever so that inspected companies enjoy effective protection of their rights, safeguards are in place, and they also avoid the risk of obstruction procedures and fines.