notebooks from the premises during the dawn raid, hiding them at the flat of a junior employee.1 The Dutch competition authority fined a company €1.8 million for obstruction as a number of employees left several WhatsApp groups and deleted chat conversations.2 In addition to dawn raids, competition authorities will gather information through extensive requests for information as well as interviews with relevant individuals. If a competition authority decides to take the case forward, it will present the parties with a Statement of Objections and grant them with access to file, giving them an opportunity to defend themselves against the case and evidence put forward against them. Following the reply, the competition authority will issue its decision, including the fine. It is also possible for the parties to seek a settlement to terminate the investigation, which will generally involve an admission of guilt in exchange for a reduction in fine. In the context of EU competition law, what are the typical sanctions or penalties that companies may face if found to have participated in a cartel? The potential sanctions are serious. The European Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the previous year’s worldwide turnover. From 2020 to September 2023, the Commission imposed €2.224 billion in fines (down from over €8 billion in 2015-2019), with the largest single cartel fine against Daimler in 2016 for just over €1 billion for its role in the trucks cartel – a cartel between truck makers that were found to have colluded for 14 years on truck pricing and on passing on the costs of compliance with stricter emission rules. However, there may be additional costs to participation in a cartel. These include individual criminal sanctions in countries including the US, Canada, the UK and Denmark, and director disqualifications in countries including the UK, Ireland or Sweden. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority can seek the disqualification of directors for a period of up to 15 years and it has been using its power regularly, securing 25 disqualifications since February 2019. Ignorance of competition law is generally not an excuse. Companies may also be banned from bidding or entering a public procurement tender for participation in a cartel. In 2021, the European Commission sought to exclude 10 banks from tendering to participate in bond sales of the €800 billion recovery fund due to their involvement in competition law infringements. Companies also face significant reputational damage for breaches of competition law, in addition to the business and management time (and costs) required to respond to an investigation. Finally, customers may choose to launch civil claims for damages against a cartel participant. These claims are often now 42 LAWYER MONTHLY NOVEMBER 2023
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk3Mzkz