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ARTICLE · 17 MARCH 2016

The EU Commission Should Provide Concrete Reasons For Requesting Information

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Information request decisions shall require only information which may assist the Commission in investigating its suspicions of infringement.

European UnionAntitrust/Competition Law
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A&O Shearman
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The statement of reasons of a decision requesting information from a company must be appropriate and disclose the purpose of the request so that the company can provide the Commission with the information necessary to that purpose.

A Welcome Limitation on the Investigatory Powers of the Commission

Information request decisions shall require only information which may assist the Commission in investigating its suspicions of infringement. The Court of Justice ruled on 10 March 2016 that, as a result, when sending information request decisions to companies the Commission is obliged to substantiate its statement of reasons with a clear indication of the products or services under investigation and its suspicions of infringement. The decision's addressees must be in a position to clearly and unequivocally understand the reasoning followed by the Commission to assess the necessity of the information in relation to the purpose of the information request. The requirement

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