Honey, the European Commission is at the door

The European Commission (EC) is committed to enforcing its antitrust laws consistently and effectively to the ever-changing business environment. And that now includes addressing the shift to hybrid working.

This week, the EC announced that it had carried out dawn raids in the energy sector, including raiding the homes of executives. This is not the first time it has raided private premises – it has a long history of doing so. But given the pandemic and the shift to hybrid working, home raids seem significantly more likely going forward.

2022 has already seen an increased appetite for carrying out raids compared to 2020 and 2021. And the number of raids might increase if proposals to grant immunity applicants protection from private damages actions progress.

As such, companies should be updating their dawn raid guidelines and protocols to ensure that they are able to comply with home raids, including by thinking through how they would be supervised by legal representatives and how the company ensures it has access to copies of relevant documents.