EU court rules that dawn raiders breached procedures at Deutsche Bahn

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The European Court of Justice has clarified rules on dawn raids, for any companies with concerns. The case was brought against the EC by Deutsche Bahn, raided in 2011 over suspected unjustified preferential treatment of subsidiaries. The commission’s raiders also found documents indicating potential anti-competitive conduct. The court ruled that while authorities may use evidence of other “misdoings” found accidentally in raids, in this case the commission had notified its inspectors beforehand that Deutsche Bahn was facing a related antitrust complaint – indicating that the additional evidence had not been found “accidentally”. The commission was found to have breached procedures – and companies can now be clear that “fishing expeditions” by EU authorities are not allowed.

Unfortunately, the actual article on the court’s ruling from yesterday is behind a pay wall, but the case is well explained in this older article by a law firm.