Greek Competition Authority Introduces New Cartel Settlement Procedure Rules

On 21 July 2016, the Hellenic Competition Commission ("HCC") adopted the terms and conditions of the settlement procedure in cartel cases, modelled after the EU equivalent procedure, under which companies cooperating in an antitrust investigation can receive a fine reduction.

The aim of the new procedure is to simplify and speed up the handling of pending cases, and to introduce a streamlined administrative process which would allow the HCC to adopt infringement decisions relating to Article 1 of the Greek Competition Act and/or Article 101 TFEU more rapidly. The settlement procedure is also designed to reduce the number of appeals against the HCC's decisions before administrative courts.