The Protection of Information Contained in Leniency Applications

On 28 January 2015, the General Court issued a judgement1 concerning a key issue in the area of practices that restrict competition: the protection afforded to information provided by leniency applicants. In fact, given their secretive nature, the dismantling of cartels depends to a large extent on whistleblowing by the participants in cartels themselves, in exchange for total or partial immunity from fines. Up to now, the Commission’s practice had been to not broadly disclose the information provided by leniency applicants, which made civil liability claims brought by injured third parties more difficult, due to the fact that proving the damage was problematic.