Oral hearing Procedure

Procedure at the oral hearing

The Hearing Officer opens the hearing and invites DG Competition to summarise the facts and principal arguments of the Commission (usual time allocated around 20 minutes).

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The party(ies) and third parties are given the opportunity to be heard.

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The Hearing Officer decides whether new documents should be admitted during the hearing.

Other Considerations

The Hearing Officer allows the parties, complainants and third parties, the Commission services and the representatives of the Member States to ask questions during the hearing to all attendees. If, exceptionally, a party cannot answer a question at the hearing, the HO may allow such party to give an answer in writing within a set time limit. Such answer should normally be distributed to all participants unless the Hearing Officer decides otherwise. 1

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Where appropriate, in view of the need to ensure the right to be heard, the Hearing Officer may, after consulting the Director responsible, afford the parties concerned, other involved parties, complainants or interested third persons the opportunity of submitting further written comments after the oral hearing and fix a date by which such submissions may be made. Those submitting the information are asked to provide non-confidential versions of the supplementary comments to be made available to all attendees.

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Before closing the oral hearing the Hearing Officer invites the parties to make final remarks.

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During the hearing, the case-team/secretary should take all necessary precautions in order to avoid any inadvertent disclosure of information covered by professional secrecy.

Resources

See Also

References

• Information about Oral hearing Procedure in the Antitrust Manual of Procedures for the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (Internal DG Competition)

Notes

[Note 1] See Article 12(3) of the HO Terms of Reference.

Further Reading

• Information about Oral hearing Procedure in “An Introduction to EU Competition Law”, Moritz Lorenz (Cambridge University Press)