ECJ Rules On Disclosing Cartel Leniency Applications

On 14 June 2011, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) made an important ruling which may force competition authorities to disclose the contents of cartel leniency applications to third parties, and enable domestic courts to order the disclosure by a defendant in a follow on competition damages claim of the information he supplied to the competition authority where the defendant received leniency in the administrative procedure.

The ECJ ruled that EU legislation must not prevent those wishing to bring damages claims against cartel participants from being granted access to leniency documents.  The ECJ added that it is for EU Member States' national courts to determine on a case by case basis the conditions under which this access must be permitted or refused by weighing the interests in favour of disclosure of the information against the interests of protecting the information from disclosure.