Dawn Raids in Egyptian Competition Law
Competition / UAE
Khaled AttiaPartner, Head of Dispute Resolution - Egypt
Chahira BachaSenior Associate,Dispute Resolution
A ‘Dawn Raid’ is commonly known as a surprise/unscheduled inspection by a competition authority, sometimes involving local police. A Dawn Raid is generally carried out when an authority thinks a request for information (RFI) is insufficient due to gravity of issue or risk of destruction or hiding of evidence.
Regarding Dawn Raids in Egypt, Article 17 of the Egyptian Competition Law (the “ECL”) gives certain employees of the Egyptian Competition Authority (“ECA”), as specified in the decree issued by the Minister of Justice, the right to conduct dawn raids on private and public economic enterprises.
According to article 17 of the ECL and article 38 of the Executive Regulations, when conducting a Dawn Raid; ECA investigators will have a warrant that grants them the right to review records and documents, obtain any information or data, interview employees, access PCs and company servers, and make copies of whatever documents they deem essential to their investigation; thus, it is paramount to understand the scope of the warrant.
However, articles 17 of the ECL and 38 of the Executive Regulations do not grant ECA investigators the right to break doors, enter companies outside of working hours, check private communication, access personal phones or laptops or access locked offices without explicit permission.
The following paragraphs highlight the key practices that companies need to consider when being subject to a Dawn Raid by ECA:
During a Dawn Raid, it is important to be friendly to ECA investigators. It is also important to cooperate with them and not hinder their investigation. It is essential to make sure that any confidential document taken by ECA investigators is marked as confidential.
Furthermore, the company legal officer and person in charge needs to be always present with the investigators to guide them through their investigation.
Every document taken by ECA investigators or minutes of meeting with any employee of the company should be recorded by the company legal officer and the person in charge. It is paramount not to volunteer any information not requested by ECA investigators nor initiate any conversations with them.
It is worth mentioning that the legal officer or the person in charge should point out to ECA investigators if they go beyond the scope of the search warrant. Furthermore, no employee should try to stop ECA investigators of doing their job as this could lead to criminal charges.
A Dawn Raid is one of the most effective tools that has been frequently used by the ECA. This is evident from the number of Dawn Raids conducted by ECA in multiple sectors such as:
The pharmaceutical sector in a case related to Pharmaceutical Distributors Cartel.
The construction sector in cases related to Cement Cartel and Bricks Cartel.
Food & beverages sector in cases related to Dairy Milk Products Cartel and agriculture sector in an abuse of dominance investigation.
Therefore, it is important to conduct training to the employees of the company on how to react to Dawn Raids and to comply with the requirements of the law without causing any harm or volunteering any unnecessary information.
For further information,please contact Khaled Attia and Chahira Bacha.
Published in March 2024
