However investigations descend into SMEs

The code name is the English translation of "police dawn raid": "dawn raid". This also resonates as a brand of insecticide. The effect on business is also the same: he paralyzes instantly. The "dawn raid", it is the swarm of investigators who hits, in the morning, the seats of companies to verify that the latter did not contravene competition rules. The brigades can come from Brussels or the national competition authority. In both cases, the financial stakes are huge. The fine may be up to 10 of global annual turnover. The last is that of air cargo carriers: 799 million euros shared between 11 companies including Air France-KLM. But, previously, there had been, in France, the 575 million euros to manufacturers of steel, the 534 million to be paid by the cartel telephone operators... These huge figures do not mean that surveys refer only to large groups. Any company is at the mercy of a control. Olivier D'ormesson, Anne Wachsmann, and Pierre Zelenco are lawyers in Linklaters. They manage the unit specialized in cabinet, ready to intervene at all times to assist their clients when investigators arrived. They indicate the gestures to do (or do not) in such circumstances.

1 Severity and "Mercy"

Since 2002, a programme called "Mercy" allows a company to denounce the agreement in which it is involved. If it is the first of the cartel to confess, it will not suffer no fine. Then, the amount of the penalty will vary depending on the rank of repentance. The French bar was outraged this incentive to denunciation. Eight years later, the figures are eloquent: more than 80 of European cartels records come from an information!

The Commission may address records according to the Community interest involved. It begins with major offences. For exemplary, but also because there is much to gain: the product of the fines is assigned to the budget of the Union. It relieves as the contribution of Member States. However, investigations descend into SMEs. In Slovakia, a company was forced into bankruptcy after the fine is paid.

In France, the competition authority is further obliged to intervene once a case is before him. Here are a few years, the investigations were fallen smartly on the business of building and public works. In Ile-de-France, several had to pay 48 million euros. Prior to this, there was the bidders in the market of public high schools: 47 million.

2. The actions to prescribe and prohibit

The Brussels reach never before 9: 30 a.m., but they move in numbers: "In the investigation of the pharmacy, they were a hundred to the doors of a dozen groups", remembers Olivier of Ormesson. One of their first acts is to retrieve the computer of the President. Was descents are more measured in numbers. But the presence of a judicial police officer, pistol belt, makes them more stressful. "However, continues Pierre Zelenco, that, on the model of the search, they last only one day." At the time, controllers, once there, managed to carry out their investigation at a time. Raid can start one morning and ends the next day. Another French particularity, officials can carry the originals. Of course, they allow photocopies. But it is wise to provide pallets of A4 sheets. The French inspectors can also capture the hard disk of the computer: "which implies that they can access to the correspondence of the legal Director with his lawyer, in violation of the principles of confidentiality", note Med' D'ormesson.

Once the lawyers warned, they arrive as soon as possible. At Linklaters, their suitcases are ready at all times, with Interior, Codes, the great decisions and the vademecum of good practices.

The slightest misstep can be expensive indeed. In the agreement between E.ON and GDF gas, a collaborator of the German group had blew the seals on the photocopies made by investigators. His employer has harvested a surcharge of EUR 38 million.

"Investigators look for keywords on computers," says Pierre Zelenco. "Price", "agreements", "competitor" are thus passed to the screen. But also "Yalta", which had allowed to highlight the agreement in telephony. Despite the denial of one of the business managers trying to believe that he was to conclude an armistice in a litigation...