Hearing officer
The hearing officer is a 1982 created senior official position in the European Commission in the area of competition law of the EU . The main task of the hearing officer is to grant hearing rights within the competition proceedings at EU level.
Two hearing officers are currently ensuring that competition proceedings in accordance with Articles 101 and 102 TFEU and the so-called Merger Control Regulation (EC) No. 139/2004 (FKVO) run as fair and objective as possible. In particular, it is their task to ensure that the companies concerned comply with the right to be heard and to inform the Commissioner of the European Commission responsible for competition issues of any irregularities. The hearing officer organizes and leads the oral hearings in competition proceedings and decides on a large number of individual questions relating to the hearing process, such as: B. the organization of the hearing and the inspection of files.
In this way, the hearing officer contributes to procedural justice in the antitrust and merger control proceedings and to the quality of the final decisions of the Commission. At the same time, he has become a recognized mediator between the Competition Directorate-General and the parties, third parties and information providers affected by the competition proceedings.
A new legal basis with extended powers was created for the activities of the hearing officers with the decision of the Commission of 23 May 2001 on the mandate of hearing officers in certain competition proceedings (2001/462 / EC, ECSC). The hearing officers report directly to the Commissioner for Competition and are not organizationally integrated into the structure of the Directorate-General for Competition.
The current hearing officers are Belgian Joos Stragier (since October 2013) and Dutch Wouter Wils (since 2010).
literature
- Serge Durande, Manuel Kellerbauer: The hearing officer in EC competition proceedings. In: WuW . 2007, pp. 865-881.
- European Commission: Glossary of EU Competition Policy: Antitrust and Merger Control. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg 2004, ISBN 92-894-6317-1 .
- Jan Peter Heidenreich: Right to be heard in EC antitrust and merger control proceedings. At the same time a contribution to the tasks and competencies of the hearing officer of the European Commission. Nomos , Baden-Baden 2004, ISBN 3-8329-0798-X .
Web links
- Homepage of the hearing officers on the website of the European Commission
- Commission decision of 23 May 2001 on the mandate of hearing officers in certain competition proceedings (2001/462 / EC, ECSC) (PDF)
Individual evidence
- ^ Dieckmann in Wiedemann, Kartellrecht, 2nd edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-53430-0 , § 44, Rn. 4th
- ↑ EU Commission appoints Wouter Wils as second hearing officer ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Research Institute for Economic Constitution and Competition, accessed June 25, 2011.
