On 28 November 2014, the Belgian Competition Authority ("BCA") announced the adoption of an ethical charter applicable to its assessors. The assessors are the members of the Competition College, the decision-making body of the BCA. They only work part-time for the BCA and primarily work as lawyers, academics, in-house counsel, etc. For each case, two assessors are selected and sit together with the President of the BCA (or the assessor vice-president).
The first part of the charter consists of a reminder of the provisions of the Code of Economic Law applicable to the assessors as regards their independence, the admissible causes for their recusal, the professional secrecy applicable to them, the disciplinary and criminal sanctions which can be adopted against them and the incompatibilities between their functions and other positions.
The charter then imposes obligations on the assessors in order to avoid conflicts of interest. This includes a duty for the assessors to disclose any possible interest, relationship or matter which may have an impact or give rise to doubts as to the assessor's independence, as well as a general duty to refrain from intervening in appeals against decisions adopted in cases where they were asked to sit.
Specific rules also apply to leniency applications. The charter makes clear that the assessors who, by virtue of their professional rules, may not accept to sit without informing their colleagues of the identity of the leniency applicants and the companies likely to be the subject of instructions following the application (i.e., essentially lawyers), will not be allowed to sit in a College called to decide on a leniency application.
Finally, the charter provides that, regardless of their submission to professional secrecy (as provided for in the Code of Economic Law), the assessors are prohibited from commenting or publishing on any case in which they sit or have seated, unless otherwise authorised by the President.
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