Press Release 22/2019

 

 

The Autoridade da Concorrência (AdC) – Portuguese Competition Authority carried out dawn raids in 5 premises of 5 undertakings in the private surveillance sector in the district of Lisbon on suspicions of anticompetitive practices, which impact the normal functioning of the market.

 

The dawn raids have been undertaken with authorization from the Department of Criminal Investigation of Lisbon and have been accompanied by police enforcement Polícia de Segurança Pública – PSP.

 

The AdC ordered the infringement procedure to be subject to secrecy taking into account that the interest behind the investigation would not be duly safeguarded should the procedure be made public.

 

The case was opened in the context of the campaign Fighting Bid Rigging in Public Procurement, which the AdC has been carrying out with contracting entities and entities with oversight and monitoring of public procurement procedures.

 

The AdC performs such proceedings, under the powers conferred on it by the Competition Law, as a means of obtaining evidence of anticompetitive practices. The occurrence of a dawn raid does not imply that the companies targeted will be subject to a conviction, nor a judgment about the culpability of their conduct in the market.

 

Violation of competition rules not only reduces consumer welfare, but also undermines the competitiveness of businesses and penalizes the economy as a whole.

 

Since the beginning of 2017, the AdC has carried out search and seizure operations in 22 investigations, corresponding to 56 facilities, namely in the sectors of tourist river transport, driving education, distribution and retail, insurance, food industry association and advertising association, telecommunications and provision of healthcare.

 

The dawn raids are in line with the priorities set by the AdC for 2019, which focus on the strengthening of antitrust enforcement.

 

Lisbon, 18 November