Competition Law Cooperation Agreement EU/Switzerland

Originally published in Kluwer Competition Law Blog, 31 July 2012

Switzerland and the European Union are about to conclude a Cooperation Agreement in the field of competition law. This new Cooperation Agreement goes beyond the previous cooperation agreements of the EU with other jurisdictions. It will enable the Swiss and EU Competition authorities to closely coordinate their enforcement activities and in particular to exchange protected and confidential information.

The EU has already concluded so-called 'first generation' bilateral cooperation agreements with the United States of America, Canada, Japan and South Korea. The Cooperation Agreement with Switzerland may be qualified as a 'second generation' cooperation agreement due to the fact that the scope of the information exchange is broader and information can be exchanged even against the will of the concerned companies, and in some cases outside of a formal investigation.