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Competition

Treatment of legally privileged information in competition proceedings

 

 26 November 2018  Paris  

Most OECD jurisdictions protect the confidentiality of the relationship between a client and its attorney, and grant parties in competition proceedings the right to resist disclosure of protected information to public bodies and third parties. Legal professional privilege is a corollary of the rights of defence and privacy. The level and modalities of privilege differ from one jurisdiction to another, depending on the balance in each jurisdiction between the public interest in searching for evidence of competition law violations, and the parties’ right to seek and obtain effective legal advice and representation.

The different approaches to legal professional privilege among jurisdictions create challenges regarding companies’ international operations, and authorities’ co-operation and sharing of information in cross-border cases involving jurisdictions offering dissimilar levels of protection.

In November 2018, the OECD held a discussion on the treatment of privileged information in competition proceedings. All related materials for the discussion are available on this page.

» Read the OECD Background Note EN • FR

» Executive Summary with key findings  Synthèse des points clés de la discussion

» Detailed Summary of the discussion  Compte rendu detaillé de la discussion

» View the full list of OECD best practice roundtables on competition policy

 

INVITED SPEAKERS

Francisco Enrique GONZALEZ-DIAZ Bio
Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Renato NAZZINI Bio  
Professor of Law & Director of Research in Construction Law, King's College London

Wouter WILS Bio
Hearing officer at the European Commission and Visiting Professor, King’s College London presenting Legal Professional Privilege in EU Antitrust Enforcement Link to an external site icon

 

KEY DOCUMENTS

» OECD Background note  • Note de référence de l'OCDE

Summary of Contributions

Australia

Hungary

Japan

Latvia

Mexico

Norway 

Russian Federation 

South Africa 

Spain 

Ukraine 

United Kingdom 

United States 

EU

BIAC 

 

 

» Read the OECD background note

» Watch a video about the other topics under discussion in Nov 2018

» OECD Competition Youtube channel

PRESENTATIONS

 

 

RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS

By the OECD

OECD Recommendation concerning International Co-operation on Competition Investigations and Proceedings, 2014

Procedural Fairness: Competition Authorities, Courts and Recent Developments, 2011

Procedural Fairness and Transparency, 2012

By the ICN

Guiding Principles for Procedural Fairness in Competition Agency Enforcement, 2018

Guidance on Investigative Process, 2018

RELATED TOPICS

International Co-operation

Competition enforcement practices

OECD best practice roundtables on competition

More OECD work on competition

 

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