Irish competition law is set to be revolutionised by new proposed legislation.
Enforcement power changes include (i) higher criminal fines of up to 20% of turnover for ‘cartel’ offences; (ii) new civil fines of up to 10% of turnover, to be imposed at lower civil standard of proof by a new independent panel of adjudicators within the Irish regulators; (iii) a new fully-fledged leniency regime with fine reductions for multiple ‘whistle-blowers’; and (iv) new interim order powers for the Irish regulators in competition enforcement and merger control cases.
Merger control power changes cause concern to deal-makers, by significantly increasing legal uncertainty and potential delay, in particular through; (i) new powers for the regulator to compel notification, issue interim orders and potentially unwind ‘below threshold’ mergers not subject to Ireland’s mandatory notification regime; and (ii) new powers for the regulator to compel information from third parties by issuing formal ‘Requests for Information’. The proposed legislation also closes a perceived gap in merger control procedural law, by creating a new gun-jumping offence of completing a transaction after notification but before completion (rather than merely before notifying as under the current Act).
