The Competition Authority approved a Competition Compliance Guide, recommending that companies implement Competition Compliance Programmes, which will enable them to identify and mitigate the risks of infringement of Competition Law.
 
Although stressing that each Programme should be tailored to the specific characteristics of each company, the Competition Authority provides common guidelines for the development of such Programmes, to include (i) the analysis and evaluation of risks to which the company may be exposed, (ii) the identification of strategies to mitigate such risks, (iii) the appointment of a person responsible for the Programme's implementation and monitoring.
 
In the Competition Compliance Guide, the Competition Authority also identifies several practices that should be adopted by the companies and included in their Programmes to avoid the risk of anti-competitive practices (such as cartels and vertical restraints), as well as provides criteria to help companies identify whether they hold a dominant position in the market.
 
The importance of companies having in place sound competition compliance practices cannot be overstated, since fines for infringements are in the range of 1% to 10% of the previous year’s gross revenue.

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