Do Companies Have The Right To Be Heard During A Dawn Raid?

The Slovenian courts were recently asked to rule on companies' right to be heard during unannounced investigations (so-called 'dawn raids') by the Competition Protection Agency.

Facts

The agency conducted a dawn raid due to a suspicion that the company in question was in a dominant position, during which the company allegedly refused to cooperate with the agency's officials. Based on this, the agency issued a fining decision stipulating that the company had violated its duty to cooperate and imposed a significant fine on it. The agency's allegations were largely based on the following factors:

• Agency representatives had to wait 54 minutes to begin the inspection. 
• They were denied access to computers.