PLC Competition – Dawn raids

1. What should be your first steps when faced with an unannounced inspection? (tick all that apply) *This question is required.

• Check whether the inspection is being carried out under authorisation or formal decision
• Determine scope of the investigation, i.e. product, market and time period that are under investigation
• Issue instructions that no shredding should take place
• Contact external lawyers and ask the competition authorities to wait until they arrive

2. The competition authorities have wide powers of inspection during a dawn raid. Which of the following are they not allowed to do: *This question is required.

• Enter business premises (including vehicles)
• Enter domestic premises, even where they do not suspect to find anything relevant to the investigation
• Examine and take copies of a company's documents, including books, business records, diaries, email messages etc.
• Seal any business premises / books or records during an investigation (normally for no more than 72 hours)
• Ask for oral explanations on-the-spot about facts and documents

3. Inspectors can question any member of staff. They are able to ask for explanations on any facts or documents relevant to the inspection. What should you do if you do not know the answer to a question asked during a dawn raid? *This question is required.

• Refuse to answer the question
• Take a guess at the answer
• Say that you do not know the answer and offer to provide a written answer once you have been able to confirm the correct answer.

4. Apart from privileged and confidential documents, what procedures should companies employ in relation to documents that the competition authorities choose to take? (tick all that apply) *This question is required.

• Take a note of all files / documents examined by the Commission
• Retain copies of all documents copied / taken by the Commission
• Take notes of any oral explanations given and any areas of dispute with Commission officials (e.g. relating to privileged documents).

5. Can competition authorities carry out electronic searches to find relevant documents? *This question is required.

• Yes
• No

6. Electronic searches are very important to competition authorities because: (tick all that apply) *This question is required.

• It is often possible to recover destroyed / deleted information.
• Electronic documents usually contain other important information, such as the author of a document, the date created and revisions made to the document.
• Some information doesn't exist on paper – many documents are only stored electronically.
• Email / instant messaging is often used for more 'free and frank' conversations.

7. Is there anything companies can do to prevent inspectors going on a 'fishing expedition' when carrying out electronic searches? (tick all that apply) *This question is required.

• Resist attempts to copy entire contents of computers and / or servers
• Ensure that a review process / timetable has been agreed for the return of material determined to be irrelevant / privileged
• Insist on being present at a joint review of disk image to ensure privileged / non-relevant files are withheld from the competition authority
• Request that Commission officials confirm in writing that, at the end of the inspection, all date copied will be wiped and that officials have taken no electronic copies of data with them.

8. The ruling that legal professional privilege doesn't extend to communications within companies with in-house lawyers was confirmed in what September 2010 case? *This question is required.

• AM & S Europe Ltd v Commission (C-155/79 [1982] ECR 1575
• Joined cases Akzo Nobel Chemicals Limited and Akros Chemicals Limited v Commission (C-550/07 P [2010])
• Akzo Chemie BV v Commission (C-53/85 [1986] ECR 1965)
• Hilti v Commission (I) (T-30/89 [1990] ECR II – 163)

9. If, during a dawn raid, there is a doubt about whether a document is privileged, can the Commission take it anyway, with a view to determining at a later point whether the document is privileged or not? *This question is required.

• No
• Yes
• It depends

10. What practical steps should companies take immediately after a dawn raid? (tick all that apply) *This question is required.

• Organise a de-briefing meeting of everyone involved.
• Make sure the company has a full a record as possible of the investigation and the inspectors' particular areas of interest.
• Make a written note of any points of disagreement, such as whether certain documents are privileged
• Devise strategy for dealing with further conduct of Commission's ongoing investigation
• Consider issuing a press release about the dawn raid