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ARTICLE · 01 SEPTEMBER 2014

Raiders

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In order to discharge its duty as the enforcer of the EU's competition rules, the European Commission has a range of investigative powers.

United KingdomAntitrust/Competition Law
John Cassels
John Cassels

In order to discharge its duty as the enforcer of the EU's competition rules, the European Commission has a range of investigative powers, including the power to request information from any person or any document or information that it considers relevant for its investigation.

For companies that are raided as part of an EU investigation, the EU's investigators can examine books and business records (both paper and electronic), take away copies, and in some instances, original documentation. The Commission has emphasised in recent guidance, the powers that it has to search IT environments including storage media (laptops, desktops, tablets, mobile phones, CD-ROMs, DVDs, USB-keys, etc) and hardware. In addition, companies are under a continuing and active duty to find documents requested by the Commission.

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