Mrs. Susan Lawrence-Simms, Senior Legal Counsel at the FTC attended a three-day workshop in Lima, Peru, on due process and procedural safeguards in competition cases. The workshop was organized by Peru’s National Institute for the Defence of Free Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The workshop explored how competition authorities can best exercise their evidence-gathering, decision-making, and assessment powers in compliance with due process and procedural safeguards (e.g., the presumption of innocence, proportionality, the right to be heard, the protection of the legitimate expectations of the parties, and the exercise of judicial review). Additionally, the workshop emphasized the OECD’s Recommendation on Transparency and Procedural Fairness in Competition Law Enforcement (2021).
Moreover, the workshop featured of five experts who covered areas such as transparency and predictability, gathering and managing information, investigation and right of defence, impartial review by administrative tribunal and judicial courts, and accessing leniency documents.