New Competition (Amendment) Bill 2011

A Bill designed to clamp down on anti-competitive practices and tackle white-collar crime in Ireland has been introduced. On 29th September this year, the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2011 was published by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to address requirements under the EU/IMF agreement to strengthen competition law enforcement in Ireland through the use of more onerous sanctions.

The Bill proposes to introduce greater fines for those convicted of anti-competitive offences and potential prison sentences have doubled. However the Bill does not confer any additional enforcement powers on the Competition Authority and critics argue that the introduction of increased fines and penalties is worthless unless the Competition Authority is given the power and resources to police alleged anti-competitive offences. To date, there have only been thirty two criminal convictions since the enactment of the Competition Act in 2002. 

Some of the key elements of the Bill include:

- An increase in the level of fines for summary competition offences from €3,000 to €5,000;
- An increase in the level of fines for indictable offences from €4 million to €5 million;
- The maximum prison sentence for indictable offences relating to anti-competitive agreements, decisions and concerted practices is to be raised from 5 to 10 years;
- An increase in the maximum daily fine for continuing summary offences from €300 to €500 and in the case of a conviction on indictable offences from €40,000 to €50,000;
- For the first time, a provision making a company or other body convicted of competition offences liable to pay the costs of investigation and prosecution of competition offences;
- The possibility, for the first time, to disqualify a person convicted of summary competition offences from being a company director;
- A provision to make it easier for litigants to take actions for damages once public enforcement proceedings have successfully been taken; and
- A provision making it possible for persons convicted of certain competition offences to be ineligible for probation.

While the publication of the Bill has been welcomed in many quarters, it remains to be seen whether the purported increased penalties and sanctions included in the Bill will reduce anti-competitive practices and improve competition and innovation in Ireland.

For more details, please visit the Houses of the Oireachtas website: (Tithe an Oireachtas)