Mr. Fergal O'Leary:

In contrast to the cartel side, where we would send a file to the DPP, we have two broad options in our civil competition work. One is to agree commitments with the firms that they will not do this again. The other is to go to court and seek a declaration that the conduct was unlawful.

If the committee does not mind, I will take this opportunity to say that we want more powers in this space. There is a new European competition network directive - the ECN+ directive - that will be transposed in the next year or so. In a civil case situation like this, I hope that it will allow us to make a determination ourselves without having to go to a court and then to impose a fine on the companies. That would be much more efficient and allow us to get more cases through the system and have a larger impact across the economy.