The European Commission has welcomed the provisional political agreement reached by European Parliament and council on the new rules to make national competition authorities more effective enforcers.
The provisional political agreement responds to the commission’s proposal from March 2017 for a directive to make member states’ competition authorities even more effective enforcers of EU antitrust rules.
This directive aims to further empower the national competition authorities by providing them with appropriate enforcement tools, which will bring about a common competition enforcement area.
Making markets work better
Commenting on the new directive, the Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, said: “EU antitrust rules make markets work better for European consumers and businesses, giving them more choice and better prices. Member states’ competition authorities and the commission work together hand in hand to enforce these rules across the EU.
“This directive will give national competition authorities effective tools and make sure they have the resources necessary to detect and sanction companies that break EU competition rules. It will also ensure that they can take their decisions in full independence, based on the facts and the law.
“I would like to thank the European Parliament – especially the Rapporteur Andreas Schwab and the shadow rapporteurs – and the Bulgarian, Estonian and Maltese Presidencies for their commendable work on this file.”
New rules
The European Commission announced that the new rules will ensure that national competition authorities will:
- Act independently when enforcing EU antitrust rules and work in a fully impartial manner;
- Have the necessary financial and human resources to do their work;
- Have all the powers needed to gather relevant evidence;
- Have adequate tools to impose proportionate and deterrent sanctions for breaches of EU antitrust rules; and
- Have co-ordinated leniency programmes which encourage companies to come forward with evidence of illegal cartels.
The text still needs to be formally approved by both the European Parliament and council, and is expected by the end of 2018.
