Spain: CNMC reviews procedures to avoid opposition from AN and Tribunal

After a jurisdictional analysis of the resolutions on competition issued by the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), the regulatory body announced that it will take measures to strengthen its procedures and prevent its resolutions from being annulled by the National Assembly and the Supreme Court of the country, providing more legal security to its procedures.

Over the course of 2017, the National Court has confirmed the existence of a violation in 65% of reviewed cases, pending the appeals filed by the competition authority against the annulment decisions. In the case of the Supreme Court, in the last year 85% of judgments have been favorable to the competition authority, in line with the statistics from previous years.

Henar González, Competition and Regulatory Partner of Herbert Smith Freehills Spain, notes that “the CNMC itself is aware that many of its resolutions have been annulled due to issues related to the rights of defense and procedural guarantees of the companies investigated and this is something that the CNMC has to correct. ”

For González “it should be easy to establish measures within the CNMC so that these irregularities do not occur, instructing the cases with sufficient guarantees to respect the rights of defense of the companies investigated.

In this process of improvement, the CNMC itself recognizes having implemented a series of measures since last October aimed at legally strengthening its actions. Among others, it has again agreed to hold oral hearings in the framework of disciplinary proceedings that, due to their complexity, require it, something that was not done since 2010.
Full Content: Confilegal

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