Non-Confidential version of the Decision Contents

The contents of the non-confidential version of the decision

In preparing non-confidential version of the decision for publication the Commission must balance its obligation of professional secrecy and interest in protecting its investigations on the one side with the aim of providing maximum transparency on the other side.

More about Non-Confidential version of the Decision Contents

In making its decisions and their contents public, the Commission has to consider (i) a number of legal requirements for deletion of information, such as the protection of confidential information, in particular business secrets, the protection of personal data, the principle of presumption of innocence and (ii) the effect that the publication of certain information may have on its ability to conduct investigations both in specific cases and generally. Such information is deleted from the non-confidential version of the decision for the purpose of publication.

More about the Subject

On the other hand, requirements of transparency, in particular those contained in the Transparency Regulation (Regulation No 1049/2001) 1 , and the interest of the economic operators in knowing the sort of behaviour for which they are liable to be penalised and the interest of persons harmed by the infringement in being informed of the details thereof so that they may, where appropriate, assert their rights against the undertakings punished 2 should be taken into consideration when establishing the non-confidential version for publication.

Resources

See Also

References

• Information about Non-Confidential version of the Decision Contents in the Antitrust Manual of Procedures for the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (Internal DG Competition)

Notes

[Note 1] Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, OJ L145, 31.5.2001, p. 43.
[Note 2] See Case T-198/03 Bank Austria Creditanstalt / Commission [2006] ECR II-1429, paragraph 78.

Further Reading

• Information about Non-Confidential version of the Decision Contents in “An Introduction to EU Competition Law”, Moritz Lorenz (Cambridge University Press)