Nederlands

Do you need assistance and want to know what your rights are when the competition authority is standing at your premises? Do you require assistance in-house? What are your rights when the competition authorities are hearing your employees?

InesLegal can offer you the following (including but not limited to):

  • Immediate assistance in person or over the phone.
  • Legal scan and assessment of the documents taken during an investigation by a competition authority or submitted in a leniency application.
  • Mock dawn raid in order to be prepared when a competition authority is at your premises.
  • Manual and procedural guidelines for investigations.
  • Assistance with requests for information by the competition authorities.

InesLegal offers you legal assistance with any competition law matter.

Contact us in order to know where you stand!
Case | Healthcare provider – Assistance

 

A healthcare provider was involved in a market sharing cartel investigation conducted by the Netherlands Competition Authority. Investigations were concluded and the health care provider received the final report (Statement of Objections). The report stated that the healthcare provider was one of the two parties accused of having participated in a classic market sharing cartel. In that cartel parties allegedly designated territories to each other and agreed not to compete in each other’s territory.

The healthcare provider contacted us to assess the facts, the evidence and the findings in the Statement of Objections. It also wanted advice which counter arguments to bring forward. Based upon our conclusions that the evidence was  thin and the findings were not convincing, we advised the client to continue legal proceedings. The healthcare provider won the case in appeal against the competition authority specifically on the arguments we advised upon.

Case | Mock dawn raid at pharmaceutical company – Assistance

 

A major pharmaceutical company requested a mock dawn raid to assess their strengths and weaknesses in case a competition authority would invade their premises. It was a test investigation of which, except for their in-house legal department, none of the employees were informed beforehand. The investigation was executed exactly the way a competition authority would do it and included a forensic IT expert and several inspectors going through the administration. Some of them had actually performed similar investigations for competition authorities for years.

The in-house legal department was convinced that the company was well prepared for an investigation and that the very strict security measures would enable them to stop the teams at the reception area. It was to their great surprise that one of the inspectors was able to through to the top floor and was standing in front of the CEO’s room.

The test was a good learning experience for the company and evaluated in full with all the personnel. The company got to know their weaknesses and how to improve their processes. The personnel felt more comfortable knowing what to do when inspectors would be going through their files and administration and blocking all business for one whole day at least.