Dawn raids
The European Commission and national competition authorities
carry out unannounced inspections or dawn raids, which all
businesses can be subject to. If there is a reasonable
suspicion that records related to the inspection are being kept
elsewhere, inspections can be made at those premises too.
The way in which a dawn raid is handled can have very
significant financial consequences, both for an organisation’s
reputation and also for their market value. Fines can be imposed
and enhanced where co-operation is inadequate and failure to secure
privileged documents can also prejudice rebuttal and
defence.
Our service
We protect you by helping you to be prepared for a dawn raid and
by acting quickly and decisively when a dawn raid occurs.
Preparation means ensuring that your appropriate staff have the
right training. As the frontline interface, your security and
reception personnel need to know what to say and who to call when
officials first arrive. In-house counsel, IT support, the press
office and other key personnel also all need to know their
respective responsibilities should a raid take place. This is
important because failure to comply with the duty of co-operation
can result in fines being imposed or can count as an aggravating
factor when the penalties are being calculated.
Our experience
We have extensive experience in helping our clients to minimise
the risk that they will attract unwanted regulatory attention, but
to also ensure that they are prepared for any inspection that
occurs. We have an outstanding reputation for vigorously defending
our clients where they are the target of unannounced inspections.
In particular, we can:
- carry out a compliance audit to identify risk factors
- provide dawn raid ‘first aid kits’
- immediate response to a raid
- follow on protection
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Dawn raids: do's and don'ts
Officials from national competition authorities and/or the
European Commission may call at any or all of your offices to
investigate possible anti-competitive practices. They can do this
if they have reasonable suspicion of an infringement. In many
instances the suspicion will arise as a result of a tip-off, a
complaint, or a whistle blower. The law obliges companies and
individuals to co-operate. Key do’s and don’ts in the event of such
a visit being made are included in these PDFs: English/Japanese
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