In a speech last week, EU competition commissioner
Margaret Vestager announced that the European Commission is
planning to conduct a series of dawn raids in the near future.
Three days later, the Commission made good on that promise, raiding
the Belgian offices of an animal pharmaceutical manufacturer over
suspicions that it abused its dominance in the animal health
market. Companies operating in the EU and elsewhere should take
heed that, after a pandemic-related slowdown, dawn raids are
back.
Background
Dawn raids are unannounced inspections of offices or residences
by competition or other regulatory authorities to look for evidence
of antitrust violations. Typically, dawn raids result in the
seizure of documents, equipment, records, and data, and they may
involve the questioning of personnel or individuals regarding the
alleged infringement. Raids can span from a few hours to more than
a week depending on the nature of the allegations, scope of
investigation,
