Belgian Competition Authority Concludes Cooperation Agreement with Ombudsman to Handle Whistleblower Reports of Competition Law Infringements
- 22/08/2024
- News
On 21 August 2024, the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) made public a cooperation agreement with the federal Ombudsman to facilitate and handle whistleblower reports of competition law infringements (see, attached press release in three language versions and cooperation agreement in Dutch and French). Like many other competition authorities, the BCA has for some time encouraged individuals with knowledge of possible violations of competition law to step forward and detail these violations. That system, dating back to October 2022, has now been expanded to implement EU Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law and the Law of 28 November 2022 on the protection of persons reporting breaches of Union law or national law in the private sector (see, VBB on Belgian Business Law, Volume 2022, number 10, at p. 8).
The cooperation agreement seeks to delineate the jurisdiction of the BCA and the Ombudsman, determine the practical terms of the cooperation between those bodies, regulate the assessment of the reporting procedures, and ensure compliance with the personal data protection rules.
From the BCA’s perspective, the cooperation agreement complements existing tools that allow the BCA to be advised of competition law infringements. These include leniency applications by both private firms and natural persons and may give rise to immunity from fines, reduced fines, or immunity from prosecution.
