Acces of third parties to Competition file- Commission Notice on the rules for access

Access to the Commission file is one of the procedural guarantees intended to apply the principle of equality of arms and to protect the rights of the defence. The term access to the file is used in this notice exclusively to mean the access granted to the persons, undertakings or association of undertakings to whom the Commission has addressed a statement of objections. The same term, or the term access to documents, is also used in the above-mentioned regulations in respect of complainants or other involved parties. These situations are, however, distinct from that of the addressees of a statement of objections and therefore do not fall under the definition of access to the file for the purposes of this notice.

Complainants do not have the same rights and guarantees as the parties under investigation. Therefore complainants cannot claim a right of access to the file as established for parties. 

However, a complainant who, pursuant to Article 7(1) of the Implementing Regulation No 773/2004, has been informed of the Commission's intention to reject its complaint, may request access to the documents on which the Commission has based its provisional assessment. The complainant will be provided access to such documents on a single occasion, following the issuance of the letter informing the complainant of the Commission's intention to reject its complaint. 

The parties must be able to acquaint themselves with the information in the Commission's file, so that, on the basis of this information, they can effectively express their views on the preliminary conclusions reached by the Commission in its objections. For this purpose they will be granted access to all documents making up the Commission file, with the exception of internal documents, business secrets of other undertakings, or other confidential information.

The access to documents of potential claimants for damages is accordingly narrower than the access enjoyed by the parties. 

Commission Notice on the rules for access to the Commission file in cases pursuant to Articles 101 and 102 TFEU