Competition Act, 2002

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Authorised officers and their powers.

45.—(1) The Authority may appoint persons to be authorised officers for the purposes of this Act.

(2) For the purpose of obtaining any information necessary for the performance by the Authority of any of its functions under this Act, an authorised officer may, on production of a warrant issued under subsection (4) authorising him or her to exercise one or more specified powers under subsection (3), exercise that power or those powers.

(3) The powers mentioned in subsection (2) are the following:

(a) to enter, if necessary by force, and search premises at, or vehicles in or by means of, which any activity in connection with the business of supplying or distributing goods or providing a service, or in connection with the organisation or assistance of persons engaged in any such business, is carried on,

(b) to enter, if necessary by force, and search any dwelling occupied by a director, manager or any member of staff of an undertaking that carries on an activity referred to in paragraph (a) or of an association of undertakings that carry on activities of the kind referred to in that paragraph, being, in either case, a dwelling as respects which there are reasonable grounds to believe records relating to the carrying on of that activity or those activities are being kept in it,

(c) to seize and retain any books, documents and records relating to an activity referred to in paragraph (a) found on any premises, vehicles or dwelling referred to in that paragraph or paragraph (b) and take any other steps which appear to the officer to be necessary for preserving, or preventing interference with, such books, documents and records,

(d) to require the person who carries on an activity referred to in paragraph (a) and any person employed in connection therewith to—

(i) give to the officer his or her name, home address and occupation, and

(ii) provide to the officer any books, documents or records relating to that activity which are in that person's power or control, and to give to the officer such information as he or she may reasonably require in regard to any entries in such books, documents or records,

(e) to inspect and copy or take extracts from any such books, documents and records,

(f) to require a person mentioned in paragraph (d) to give to the authorised officer any information he or she may require in regard to the persons carrying on the activity referred to in paragraph (a) (including in particular, in the case of an unincorporated body of persons, information in regard to the membership thereof and its committee of management or other controlling authority) or employed in connection therewith,

(g) to require a person mentioned in paragraph (d) to give to the authorised officer any other information which the officer may reasonably require in regard to the activity referred to in paragraph (a).

(4) A judge of the District Court may issue a warrant to an authorised officer for the purposes of subsection (2) if the judge is satisfied from information on oath that it is appropriate to do so.

(5) The powers specified in a warrant issued under subsection (4) may be exercised within 1 month after the date of issue of the warrant or such greater or lesser period as is specified in it.

(6) Any books, documents or records which are seized or obtained under subsection (3) may be retained for a period of 6 months, or such longer period as may be permitted by a judge of the District Court, or if within that period there are commenced any proceedings to which those books, documents or records are relevant, until the conclusion of those proceedings.

(7) Where the Authority or an authorised officer proposes to retain, pursuant to subsection (6), books, documents or records for a period longer than 14 days after the date on which they were seized or obtained by the authorised officer, the Authority or that officer shall, before the expiry of that period of 14 days, or such longer period with the consent of the person hereafter mentioned, furnish, on request, a copy of the books, documents or records to the person who it appears to the Authority or officer is, but for the exercise of the powers under this section, entitled to possession of them.

(8) A warrant issued under subsection (4) which authorises the exercise of the powers referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (3) shall, unless it states that this subsection is not to apply, operate to authorise one or more members of the Garda Síochána to accompany the authorised officer concerned in his or her entry into any premises or dwelling concerned and to assist the officer in the exercise of any of his or her powers thereon.

(9) For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in subsection (8) affects the exercise by an authorised officer who is a member of the Garda Síochána of any power, which apart from that subsection, he or she could exercise by virtue of subsection (2) or otherwise.

(10) A person who obstructs or impedes an authorised officer in the exercise of a power conferred by this section or does not comply with a requirement under this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €3,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

(11) In this section “records” includes, in addition to records in writing—

(a) discs, tapes, sound-tracks or other devices in which information, sounds or signals are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other instrument) of being reproduced in legible or audible form,

(b) films, tapes or other devices in which visual images are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other instrument) of being reproduced in visual form, and

(c) photographs,

and a reference to a copy of records includes, in the case of records falling within paragraph (a) only, a transcript of the sounds or signals embodied therein, in the case of records falling within paragraph (b), a still reproduction of the images embodied therein and, in the case of records falling within both of those paragraphs, such a transcript and such a still reproduction.

(12) The reference in subsection (2) to the functions of the Authority shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to include a reference to the investigation by the Authority of, and the taking by it of proceedings (whether civil or criminal) in relation to, any contravention of an enactment repealed by section 48 that it suspects has occurred.

(13) In—

(a) an action under section 14 , or

(b) proceedings for an offence under this Act,

the production to the court of a document purporting to be a warrant or other document whereby the Authority appointed, on a specified date, a person under this section to be an authorised officer for the purposes of this Act shall, without proof of any signature on it or that the signatory was the proper person to sign it, be sufficient evidence, until the contrary is proved, that the first-mentioned person is or, as the case may be, was at all material times (but not earlier than the date aforesaid) a person appointed under this section to be an authorised officer for the purposes of this Act.