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'thank you for your co-operation': A practical perspective on managing dawn raids and regulatory investigations

October 2008
CompetitionRetail

Abstract

You can imagine the scenario: It’s Monday morning, 8:20am. The receptionists are just getting settled, and the few employees in the office are gathered around the coffee machine. All of a sudden, the front door bursts open and into reception burst a host of inspectors, with cries of “European Commission, nobody move…” Although this scene is more likely to occur in Hollywood than Brussels, dawn raids conducted by competition regulators have become a regular feature of the competition landscape, particularly with the focus of the European Commission on cartel-busting. But one should also keep in mind that it is not just the competition authorities that have the power to carry out unannounced inspections: regulatory supervision is increasing and businesses potentially face dawn raids from competition, financial and fraud regulators and investigators. A dawn raid is an unannounced inspection by a regulatory authority, carried out to secure evidence, in case of the European Commission, because the Commission suspects that the business being dawn raided has infringed European competition laws. During a dawn raid by competition authorities, the inspectors are generally entitled to review, read and copy any books and business records of the company that are within the scope of the investigation. The European Commission can also ask for on the spot explanations of documents and facts.

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Author

Frank Govaerts
General Counsel, Coca Cola, Belgium

Frank Govaerts is the General Counsel of the European Group of Coca-Cola Enterprises European Group. Frank commenced his career as a teaching assistant in Economic Law at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1984 before moving into the pharmaceutical industry in 1987, where he spent six years as a Senior Legal Counsel with Johnson & Johnson. Frank joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1993 as Region Counsel for Benelux and Denmark and in 1996 moved to Coca-Cola Enterprises as Vice President Legal for the Benelux. After having been posted to the Corporate Headquarters of Coca-Cola Enterprises in Atlanta in 2001, Frank was appointed General Counsel of Coca-Cola Enterprises’ European Group in 2002. Paul van Reesch Paul van Reesch is a Senior Legal Counsel in the European Group of Coca-Cola Enterprises. Paul is a dual qualified Australian/English lawyer who joined the commercial legal team of Coca-Cola Enterprises in Great Britain in 2005 after working for several years in private practice in Australia. In 2007 Paul was appointed to the role of Senior Commercial Legal Counsel in Coca-Cola Enterprises’ European Group.

Company

Coca Cola

The Coca-Cola Company

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