Treatment of Legally Priviledged Information in Competition Proceedings

This paper gives a brief overview of the foundations of legal privilege, examines the personal (“who”) and material (“what”) scope of legal privilege, and how it can be lost or waived. it also looks at the implications of legal privilege for competition authorities’ information requests and inspections, gives an overview of privilege claims by clients and their assessment and explores the ways and implications of sharing potentially privileged information. It was prepared as a background note for a discussion held at the OECD in November 2018 on the Treatment of Legally Priviledged Information in Competition Proceedings.