Bilateral Cooperation Agreement In Competition Matters

The European Union and the Swiss Confederation have signed a Cooperation Agreement in Competition Matters. The agreement provides for broad possibilities of the Swiss competition authority and the European Commission to exchange protected or confidential information they have obtained in their investigations, even without the consent of the investigated companies.

1 CURRENT STATUS

1.1 The current legal framework

In a globalized economic environment, competition authorities are investigating potential anti-competitive behavior on a transnational level. This triggered the authorities' desire to cooperate with their international counterparts in order to reduce the risk of diverging assessments and lack of information levels in parallel procedures.