On 17 October, the European Commission adopted a series of
measures to increase the transparency of competition
investigations.
The
Notice on antitrust best practices formalises practices that
the Commission put in place in 2010 (such as opening formal
proceedings at an earlier stage of an investigation, and publicly
announcing the opening and closure of a procedure). However, it
also goes further, providing, for example, that parties will be
given more detail about the way in which their fines will be
calculated (although not the amount) in the statement of
objections. A revised
mandate for the Hearing Officers will also give them a greater
role in the investigative stage, for example in reviewing legal
privilege claims, claims of privilege against self-incrimination
and deadlines for replying to information requests. The Commission
will still take an appealable decision if no agreement can be
reached, but the intention is that the involvement of the
