Ireland: Passage of Competition (Amendment) Bill 2022 providing the Irish competition authority with additional powers

On 4 May 2022, the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2022 passes to the Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Irish legislature, after being introduced in the Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish legislature on 31 January 2022. The Act transposes the EU Directive 2019/1 to give additional powers to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and introduces higher penalties for competition law violations. Firstly, the Bill gives the CCPC the power to request additional information and investigate mergers regardless of the company size, if the agency believes the transaction could negatively impact competition. Secondly, the Bill reduces the burden of proof in the cases of alleged competition law infringements. The companies will be held liable if they have “intentionally, recklessly or negligently” violated the law. Thirdly, the Bill introduces higher civil administrative fines, with fines up to EUR 10 million or 10% of the company’s global turnover. Any civil fine proposed by the CCPC must however be confirmed by the High Court. The fines for criminal violations would be EUR 50 million or 20% of the company’s global turnover. In order to ensure companies cooperate with the CCPC, periodic penalty payments are introduced. In the area of merger control, the offence of "gun-jumping" is updated. Finally, the CCPC can now require parties to notify transactions and also investigate such transactions, despite the transaction being below the applicable financial thresholds.