The Competition (Amendment) Act 2012 came into force on 3 July 2012. The Act aims to provide more effective deterrents to individuals or undertakings engaging in anti-competitive practices. The Act is a step towards compliance with the Government’s commitment under the EU/IMF financial support programme to strengthen the enforcement of competition law in Ireland.
The main changes in the Act include:
Increased penalties
- An increase from five to ten years in the maximum prison sentence for conviction on indictment of a “hard core” competition offence (i.e., arrangements relating to price-fixing, output restrictions and market sharing)
- An increase in the fines applicable to competition offences
- An extension of the director disqualification regime to cover non-indictable competition law breaches
- A prohibition on a person convicted of a competition offence being eligible for probation
Promotion of enforcement
- An easing of the burden of proof for private plaintiffs taking a follow-on case for damages
- Provision for the court to make a convicted person liable for the costs and expenses incurred in relation to the investigation, detection and prosecution of a competition offence
- Provision to have settlements entered into between the Authority and undertakings made orders of court (in cases where no proceedings have issued)
- An increase in the time limit during which the Competition Authority is required to provide copies of documents seized during investigations, from 14 to 35 days
The increases in penalties (including fines, imprisonment and director disqualification) demonstrate the seriousness with which breaches of competition law are viewed. Other changes should facilitate enforcement by the Competition Authority. In particular, the provisions on the costs and expenses of investigations being incurred by convicted persons will assist the Competition Authority in its enforcement role, as will the provisions making settlement agreements subject to High Court orders (which were not featured in the original Bill). Failure to comply with such a court order could result in the imposition of penalties for contempt of court.
Contributed by Cormac Little and Claire Waterson.
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