The European Union and Switzerland have signed an agreement with a view to strengthen co-operation between competition authorities, meaning the European Commission and the Swiss Competition Commission. According to the agreement, the two competition agencies will be able to exchange information they have obtained in their investigations.
As Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of competition policy, stated: “Many anticompetitive practices have cross border effects on the EU and the Swiss markets. This strengthening of our cooperation is unprecedented and goes beyond the EU's existing agreements with other third countries. It will make our competition authorities more effective, to the benefit of companies and consumers on both sides.”
More specific, the agreement sets out the details for co-ordination and co-operation of enforcement activities. In particular, the details involve the effective implementation of competition rules and establish regular contacts between the two countries in order to discuss policy issues and enforcement efforts and priorities. The agreement also foresees that the EU and Switzerland may request each other to start enforcement actions against anti-competitive behavior.
This is the fifth such agreement, since the EU has also signed similar agreements with the United States, Canada, Japan and Korea in the past. However, unlike the other five, the agreement with Switzerland also includes provisions on the exchange of evidence obtained by the competition authorities when they investigate the same case. Nevertheless, according to the rules, the information can only be used by either the EU or Switzerland for the enforcement of its competition rules only in relation to the case at hand. In addition, no evidence can be used to impose sanctions on natural persons.
The agreement will enter into force once it receives the European Parliament and the Swiss Parliament’ approval.
