Competition law investigations often commence by way of a “dawn raid." This consists of the competition authorities arriving at a business’s premises early in the morning usually with a warrant, and searching through documents, computer systems and questioning staff (often under caution).
Raids can last for several days and are a very stressful and disruptive experience for the target business.
Our specialist dawn raid response team is able to either quickly attend your premises and manage the progress of the raid on your behalf or arrange for one of our trusted associate firms to attend your premises, depending on location. We will ensure that we monitor what the investigators are looking at to ensure that they do not view anything that they are not entitled to look at.
We will ensure that staff are only asked questions that the investigators are permitted to ask. In this way we will minimise the impact of the raid on your business and ensure that the investigation does not “expand” to become a “fishing expedition” for the investigators.
Our team will also be able to ensure that the alleged anti-competitive conduct is quickly identified and ensure that your business has the maximum chance to cooperate with the investigators (immunity from penalties or reduced penalties are available for timely cooperation).
We acted on the first ever dawn raid under the Competition Act 1998 and have defended subsequent raid investigations across numerous industry sectors including transport, construction and branded sporting goods.
