After an 18 month investigation involving officials from both the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (“CCPC”) and Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecution, and a first-ever criminal prosecution, a company that gun-jumped Irish merger control rules avoided criminal conviction by agreement to donate €2,000 to charity, following a guilty plea.
Irish competition law renders it a criminal offence to put a transaction into effect without prior CCPC approval, if that transaction satisfies certain turnover thresholds. This offence deems the non-notified deal void and carries an initial fine of between €3,000 and €250,000 for the company, or for the person controlling the company if they knowingly and wilfully authorise or permit the breach.
Read the full article here: A small charitable donation for gun-jumping