Kluwer Competition Law Blog

In these difficult economic times, companies caught up in EU competition enforcement proceedings now regularly claim that the imposition of heavy fines could put them out of business. “Inability to pay” (ITP) arguments have therefore become regular features of fines assessments and appeals. Naturally, the European Commission is focussed on deterrence and on imposing headline…

In the context of antitrust and cartel investigations, electronic data or computer-generated information often has the highest evidential value and potentially the highest impact on the outcome of the investigation. For this reason, when conducting surprise inspections at the premises of a suspected undertaking, electronic data is often the first target of the Commission. Companies…