European Commission to publicly give companies clean bill of health if investigations don’t turn up much incriminating evidence

The European Commission is planning to publicly give its reasons for closing proceedings or rejecting complaints if it does not find sufficient incriminating evidence to take investigations or prosecutions further for cases of alleged breaches of competition law. The proposed guidelines that it circulated at the end of 2009 would be welcomed by entities which are investigated but not charged and whose name is blackened in the process with whispers that they are being investigated. Public exonerations should hopefully clear their names. The Commission also wants to increase people’s understandings of the investigatory process and create more transparency and efficiency.