On 27 October 2016, Belgium's deputy prime minister and minister of Employment, Economy and Consumer Affairs, in charge of Foreign Trade, Kris Peeters submitted to the Federal Parliament his General Policy Note on Economics. This policy note announces several proposed changes to competition law procedures and enforcement.
First, Book IV of the Code of Economic Law (Wetboek van Economisch Recht / Code de droit économique), which governs competition law, will be amended to improve competition law procedures and thus increase the efficiency of the Belgian Competition Authority (Belgische Mededingingsautoriteit / Autorité belge de la Concurrence) ("BCA"). This draft law will be submitted for comments to members of the bar and business stakeholders. It is expected that the draft law will be reviewed by the Council of Ministers in Spring 2017.
Second, the policy note announces the implementation into Belgian law of Directive 2014/104/EU of 26 November 2014 on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union (the "Directive"). The Directive establishes a framework that governs actions for damages for violations of European or national competition law (See, VBB on Competition Law, Volume 2014, No. 11, p. 16, available at www.vbb.com). The implementation of this Directive will bring about a number of significant changes to Belgian competition law and procedure. It will notably introduce into Belgian law a rebuttable presumption that cartels cause harm and a non-rebuttable presumption that infringements identified in decisions of the BCA constitute a fault. It will also empower the courts to order the disclosure of items of evidence or "relevant categories of evidence" detained not only by parties to the trial but also by third parties. The draft law furthermore seeks to safeguard the efficiency of the leniency and settlement mechanisms by granting absolute protection to leniency declarations and settlement proposals. The draft law should be available for public consultation very soon, as the policy note announces a consultation in the "Fall of 2016".
Finally, the BCA, which has long suffered from a lack of staff (See, VBB on Belgian Business Law, Volume 2015, No. 5, p. 6, available at www.vbb.com), should soon be able to recruit new officials. A draft regulatory framework on the statute of the BCA personnel, necessary to hire new staff, has been drafted by the minister for Economics and funds have been set aside for this purpose. The new BCA officials should begin to take up their posts during the first semester of 2017.
On 10 October 2016, the BCA had already issued a press release announcing the beginning of the recruitment process. The BCA looks for an undetermined number of legal investigators, an economist for the office of the BCA's Chief Economist (Directeur economische studies / Directeur des études économiques), and a member of the secretariat staff. The BCA also plans to recruit legal advisors and economic and forensic investigators at a later stage.
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