In April of this year, the Competition Regulatory Authority (CRA) launched a public consultation process in relation to the Draft Regulation of the Leniency Regime, with the purpose of collecting observations, suggestions and contributions from all interested parties in this matter.
This action is strictly connected to both the Organic Statute of the CRA and the Regulation of the Competition Law, which foresee the existence of a “leniency” mechanism in the context of investigations carried out by the CRA. This leniency regime intends to apply a reduction of the fines that would be imposed on companies or individuals, for participating in alleged anti-competition practices or anti-trusts infringements, provided that their collaboration results in the identification of other participating undertakings involved in the infringement and in obtaining information and documents that evidences the infringement under investigation.
One great advantage of these mechanisms is to enable access or information to illegal practices, that are usually secret, by strengthening the CRA’s ability to prove the alleged infringement. It is known that the implementation of leniency programs in other jurisdictions and regions such as North America or the EU has led to the increase of detection and sanctioning of a large number of international cartels.
The draft regulation under discussion consists of 12 articles, which are mainly procedural rules and include the guarantee of confidentiality of the applications and the information, as well as the possibility of the application being made orally (rather than in writing).
Therefore, it is expected that this instrument will encourage greater collaboration in the process of investigating and combating anti-trust practices and thus facilitate the intervention of the CRA.
For further information on legal updates in Mozambique, please contact zara.jamal@jlaadvogados.com.
