On 5 December, World’s Competition Day, marks the eighth Lawyers' Forum organised by the Competition Council (CC), where CC representatives meet face-to-face with competition law practitioners, lawyers and members of the judiciary to discuss theoretical and practical issues on the application and interpretation of competition law rules.
During the event, competition experts, who otherwise meet on a formal basis, discuss topical issues and seek solutions to existing problems in an open conversation, thus creating as coherent, transparent and understandable an environment for competition law enforcement as possible.
One of the topics of discussion is the amendments to the Public Procurement Law, which entered into force this year, which provides that companies are prohibited from participating in procurements for three years instead of the previous one year for involvement in a cartel. The law also introduces a new exclusion criterion, according to which contracting authorities can exclude a company from participating in a procurement. In particular, contracting authorities may exclude candidates from a procurement not only in cases where a decision of the CC on a cartel has become final, but also in cases where the contracting authority itself finds indications of a collusion between candidates in a particular procurement, and at the same time has consulted the CC on this case, receiving the authority's opinion on a possible cartel. If the contracting authority's suspicions that the candidate may be involved in a collusion are confirmed, the contracting authority may decide to exclude the candidate from participation in the procurement in question. In the forum, the CC discusses its first experience and conclusions in the context of the new amendments, assessing contracting authorities' submissions on possible collusion in procurement and issuing opinions within 10 working days.
A representative of ZAB PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal gives his views on the application of the exclusion rules and the aspects of restoring credibility to allow candidates to continue to participate in procurement after involvement in competition law infringements.
At this year's forum, the CC also addresses the issue of access to the Competition Council's case files, including the increasing use by individuals of the right to bring damage actions for competition law infringements. In 2022, the Senate of the Republic of Latvia concluded that communications and settlement offers made under the Leniency Programme should have the greatest legal protection. Therefore, such communications are excluded from the scope of information that could be made available to other persons.
At the same time, a representative of ZAB Cobalt presented his views on the aspects of applying penalties to infringers of competition law and whether the same penalties “hurt” all market participants equally.
Māris Spička, executive director of the Competition Council, highlights the benefits of the forum: “It is a real pleasure that after a break of several years, the tradition of bringing together competition law experts to share experience and facilitate open discussions on issues of interpretation of the law from different perspectives – from the perspective of the competition law supervisory authority and lawyers and advocates working in the private sector – has been restored. The Lawyers' Forum allows proactive legal representatives of market players to understand the authority's position on different aspects of competition law enforcement, and the authority to gain a broader understanding of the challenges faced by legal aid providers and market players in ensuring compliance with competition law.”
The Lawyers' Forum is an established tradition of the CC where the authority meets with competition law practitioners, lawyers, judges and assistant judges to discuss theoretical and practical issues on the application and interpretation of competition law rules. Such a platform promotes the most coherent, transparent and understandable application of competition law.