Competition Authority Adopts New Approach To Gathering Electronic Evidence During Dawn Raids

The Warsaw Court of Competition and Consumer Protection recently delivered a significant judgment regarding the collection of electronic evidence during unannounced inspections conducted by the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection.

Facts

The Office for Competition and Consumer Protection carried out dawn raids at premises of companies operating in the fitness sector. The inspection was conducted following the authority's suspicion that the main players in this market had entered into an anti-competitive agreement.

In the course of one dawn raid, officials copied the hard drives of laptops and the content of email mailboxes belonging to two managers. The copies were placed in sealed envelopes and taken to the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection's headquarters for further review.