The Use of Digital Evidence and Technological Tools in Competition Enforcement Actions and their Interference with Private and Privileged Information and Data Protection Rules

Developments in technology have significantly changed the way in which cartel participants communicate with each other. Almost all such communication now take place in the digital sphere and the records of such communication are stored in electronic devices such as computers, cell phones and tablets. Competition authorities need to collect evidence of communication between competitors and thus gathering digital information has become a fundamental part of their fight against cartels.

Being able to collect digital evidence brings along significant advantages for regulators. First, due to IT forensic technologies, it is possible for competition authorities to retrieve deleted data. Therefore, it is much more difficult for cartel participants to hide or destroy evidence. Second, metadata contains additional information about document such as the date of creation, identities of the sending and receiving parties, date of deletion and date of any alteration. Thus digital