Dáil debates

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2011: Report Stage

 

1:00 pm

Photo of John PerryJohn Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 6, to delete lines 33 and 34 and substitute the following:

6.—(1) Section 45 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (7), by the substitution of "35" for "14" in each place that it occurs, and

(b) in paragraph (a) of subsection (13), by the substitution of "section 14A" for "section 14".

(2) The amendment of subsection (7) of section 45 of the Principal Act effected by paragraph (a) of subsection (1) shall not apply as respects books, documents or records seized or obtained under that section before the commencement of this section.".

This amendment replaces section 6 of the Bill which amends section 45 of the Competition Act 2002. Subsection (1)(a) is new and extends from 14 to 35 days the time limit within which the Competition Authority is required to provide copies of any books, documents or records seized by it during searches carried out as part of its investigations. When the authority carries out investigations into alleged breaches of the Competition Act, its authorised officers will, on foot of District Court warrants, be entitled to seize and retain books, documents and records, including records held electronically.

Since the introduction of the 2002 Act there have been significant developments in technology and computing. The Competition Authority has found it increasingly difficult to return copies of electronically stored records within the 14 day deadline contained in the Act. The problem is made worse when the authority is obliged to conduct multiple simultaneous searches at different sites. Given the exponential developments in computing and the fact the authority is increasingly being obliged to seize ever larger and more complicated computer systems during its investigations, the significance of this issue is likely to grow in future.

It has led to a number of planned searches to be put on hold while alternatives can be examined. Extending the deadline currently provided for section 45(7) to a period of 35 days is a practical solution and will also strengthen the enforcement of the competition law in Ireland which is committed to the EU-IMF programme of financial support for Ireland. The amendment will allow the authority to conduct searches and seize materials without fear of being in breach of the Act where it could not give copies in the timeframe of the Act. The party from which the materials have been seized will still receive a copy of the seized materials. The proposed section 6(1)(b) is the same as the current section 6 of the Bill, which was agreed on Committee Stage, but substitutes a reference to section 14A from section 14 to reflect the splitting of public and private civil enforcement provisions. Following the enactment of the Bill section 14 of the 2002 Act will provide for private and civil enforcement while section 14A inserted by the Bill will provide for the public civil enforcement of competition law.

Section 2 is new and provides that the change from 14 days to 35 days does not apply to any records seized by the Competition Authority before the section has commenced.

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