Belgian Competition Authority Issues Guidelines For Dawn Raids

When investigating violations of competition law, the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") can carry out unannounced on-site inspections at the premises of undertakings, associations of undertakings and natural persons. Such inspections are known as dawn raids. Before launching an inspection, the BCA provides guidelines to the undertaking concerned, setting out the applicable procedure. The BCA has now decided to codify these guidelines and make them public.

The following points should be noted:

• In the guidelines, the BCA notes that it can start the inspection as soon as the undertaking concerned receives the orders issued by the competition prosecutor (auditeur/auditeur) and the investigating magistrate. It is not obliged to await the arrival of external counsel. In practice, however, the BCA will usually wait 30 minutes in order to allow external counsel to reach the premises.