In July 2025, the European Commission launched a consultation about its revision of the EU antitrust procedural rules.[1] This is part of a comprehensive evaluation that the Commission initiated in March 2022, to ensure that the procedural framework for the EU’s antitrust enforcement remains “fit for the digital age” after its enactment 20 years ago.[2]
The consultation sought feedback on two key policy areas: (1) improving the procedure for digitalized and complex investigations, and (2) addressing the risk of fragmented competition law enforcement arising from stricter laws on unilateral conduct at EU Member State level.
Our response – available here – addressed these issues alongside additional areas that we believe warrant improvement. Our key proposals are as follows.
- To improve its procedure in digitised and complex investigations, we recommend that the Commission:
- Maintains existing investigative powers, which strike the right balance between enabling the Commission to conduct complex investigations effectively and companies’ right of defence.
- Maintains the existing substantive test for imposing interim measures, which allows the Commission to intervene in cases of genuine urgency and safeguard companies’ fundamental rights to be burdened only if strictly necessary.
- Maintains flexibility for binding commitments, as rigid deadlines for offering commitments could undermine the careful design efforts required for effective remedies, particularly in digital markets.
- Improves the access to file procedure, so that external advisers of the Statement of Objection’s addressees are granted access to the entire case file under conditions of confidentiality, without access being restricted to a limited period or a physical data room. Statement of Objection’s addressees should be provided to all case file documents that are not subject to confidentiality and redacted version of documents that are confidential.
- Continues to respect the role of complainants, which should retain the right to a rejection decision and enhanced procedural rights in recognition of complainants’ initiative and cooperation. Given their limited role, interested third parties should not benefit from equivalent rights.
- To reduce the risk of fragmented competition law enforcement arising from stricter laws on unilateral conduct at EU Member State level, the Commission should:
- Extend the existing coordination and information-sharing mechanism to enforcement of stricter national laws on unilateral conduct by national competition authorities.
- Limit the possibility of applying these laws only to conduct with a direct and exclusive link to a single EU Member State.
- To improve other procedural issues, we recommend the Commission to:
- Ensure the uniform application of EU competition law, by requiring national courts to stay proceedings when a Commission investigation involving the same conduct is pending.
- Ensure uniform application of EU law to digital gatekeepers, by shielding gatekeepers that adopted a behavioural remedy following a formal DMA investigation from enforcement of Article 102 TFEU and national equivalents to the same conduct.
- Ensure effective and faster enforcement of EU competition law,by introducing deadlines for different steps in the Commission investigation, with the aim of shortening the overall duration of proceedings.
- Extend legal professional privilege to in-house lawyers, thereby ensuring that companies of all sizes have meaningful access to privileged legal counsel and improving effective compliance with competition law.
[1] Specifically, the consultation concerned Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of December 16, 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles [101] and [102] of the Treaty, and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 773/2004 of April 7, 2004 relating to the conduct of proceedings by the Commission pursuant to Articles [101] and [102] of the Treaty.
[2] The evaluation was completed in September 2024, with its findings summarized in a Staff Working Document available here. The evaluation confirmed that Regulations 1/2003 and 773/2004 have generally achieved their objective of ensuring effective, efficient, and uniform application of EU competition rules, whilst also identifying areas that warrant further consideration. Additional information regarding the Commission’s initiative is available here.