Treatment of legally privileged information in competition proceedings

26 November 2018 Paris

Most OECD jurisdictions protect the confidentiality of the relationship between a client and its attorney, and grant parties in competition proceedings the right to resist disclosure of protected information to public bodies and third parties. Legal professional privilege is a corollary of the rights of defence and privacy. The level and modalities of privilege differ from one jurisdiction to another, depending on the balance in each jurisdiction between the public interest in searching for evidence of competition law violations, and the parties’ right to seek and obtain effective legal advice and representation.

The different approaches to legal professional privilege among jurisdictions create challenges regarding companies’ international operations, and authorities’ co-operation and sharing of information in cross-border cases involving jurisdictions offering dissimilar levels of protection.

In November 2018, the OECD held a discussion on the treatment of privileged information in competition proceedings. All related materials for the discussion are available on this page.

» Read the OECD Background Note EN • FR

» Executive Summary with key findings • Synthèse des points clés de la discussion

» Detailed Summary of the discussion • Compte rendu detaillé de la discussion

» View the full list of OECD best practice roundtables on competition policy

INVITED SPEAKERS

Francisco Enrique GONZALEZ-DIAZ Bio
Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Renato NAZZINI Bio
Professor of Law & Director of Research in Construction Law, King's College London