Belgian Competition Authority Adopts Guidelines On Conduct Of Inspections

On 24 December 2013, the Board of Directors of the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") published in the Belgian Official Journal (Belgisch Staatsblad / Moniteur belge) its Guidelines on competition inspection procedures (the "Guidelines"). The Guidelines codify and release to the public rules of which competition officials have since 2011 been informing the undertakings under inspection.

The Guidelines are broadly similar to the Explanatory Note to the authorisation to conduct an inspection published by the European Commission, containing its own inspection rules (the "Explanatory Note"). However, some issues covered in the Explanatory Note were omitted from the Guidelines, such as the possibility for the inspectors to delay slightly the beginning of the inspection to wait for the undertaking's lawyers to arrive and details on the treatment of oral explanations given by the undertaking during the inspection. In addition, the Guidelines do not require the