In light of recent information about new probes under the DMA and the DSA, and the growing interest in enforcement of the draft AI Act, we decided to explore what investigatory powers are available to the European Commission and local authorities under these regulations, and more specifically how the enforcing authorities can conduct dawn raids…
At the crack of dawn, the European Commission embarked on a milestone enforcement endeavor: the first unannounced inspection under the new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR)! The European Commission, in tandem with national competition authorities, conducted its first dawn raids under the FSR at the Polish and Dutch offices of Nuctech, a Chinese company specialized…
Dawn raids are back with a vengeance. In October 2021, when COVID-19 restrictions were being lifted, EVP M. Vestager stressed that after a two-year hiatus mandated by the pandemic, dawn raids were back (see here for the speech). After carrying out dawn raids in the fashion and the wood pulp industries, she warned that this…
On 9 March 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its rulings in Les Mousquetaires and Casino, both cases dealing with the procedural safeguards that need to surround a dawn raid. Less than a month later, the European Court of Human Rights gave its view on the matter in UAB Kesko Senukai…
The Turkish Competition Authority (TCA) has rendered a number of decisions, particularly in recent years, on whether on-site inspections have been hindered or complicated. These include two recent decisions on D-Market Elektronik Hizmetler ve Ticaret A.Ş. (“Hepsiburada“), one of the largest e-marketplaces in Turkey. In the first of these decisions, the TCA examined whether the…
In a speech on 22 October 2021, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager revealed that the European Commission was planning a series of dawn raids for the months to come. She highlighted that the European Commission is not just looking to investigate traditional cartels, like price-fixing agreements, but also other types of anti-competitive conduct – such…
This autumn, European competition authorities are likely to resume dawn raids of companies suspected of competition law infringements. This will aim to clear a backlog of planned inspections that has built up since the start of the pandemic resulting from organizational difficulties due to COVID-19 travel and social distancing restrictions. Companies should ensure that their…
Major amendments to competition legislation are expected to add more bite to the bark of Sweden’s antitrust watchdog. On 1 March 2021, the Swedish Competition Authority (SCA) gained a number of new powers and introduced some related changes to its routines. Specific to Sweden but with broader resonance in real terms, this is a good…
The ECN+ Directive requires all EU Member States to confer upon their national competition authorities certain enforcement and sanctioning powers. The Danish implementing act, no. L 116 (link only available in Danish), was passed by the Danish Parliament on 9 February 2021. Although the ECN+ Directive was adopted on 11 December 2018, and therefore well-known…
On 5 October 2020, the General Court of the European Union (GC) partially annulled decisions of the European Commission (EC) to order on-the-spot inspections (dawn raids) of a number of French retailers[1]. The GC held that the EC did not have sufficiently strong evidence to launch dawn raids in respect of some of the suspected…
