Production and construction of concrete

Investigation of possible obstruction of investigation of the Hellenic Competition Commission according to the provisions of article 26 of Law 703/1977, as in force, during the on-site inspection.

Article 26 par. 6 of L. 703/77 (current art. 39 par. 5 L. 3959/2011).

Ex officio investigation

LATOMIKI TECHNICAL SA.

With this decision (EA 559 / VII / 2013) the HCC imposed fines on the companies LATOMIKI TECHNICAL SA and LATOMIKI SA, active in the manufacture and production of concrete, for violation of article 26 par. 6 of law 703/1977, as they jointly obstructed the on-site investigation (dawn-raid) of the Commission on possible violations of the competition rules.

In particular, during the dawn-raid it was detected that a large number of electronic files had been deleted with remote access from the computer of a high-ranking executive and member of the Board of Directors of the companies involved, in order to obstruct the inspection team from finding the deleted files. The manipulation of the computer of this high-ranking executive was later confirmed by an expert, who was commissioned by the HCC to examine the confiscated hard drive of the computer in question and to recover the deleted files. According to the decision, the companies obstructed the dawn-raid, in breach of their obligation to accept the investigation and actively cooperate with the Authority’s officials in conducting on-the-spot inspections, in particular due to the non-submission of all requested data and documents.

Finally, the Commission imposed a fine of seventy-two thousand (72,000€) euros jointly to the companies LATOMIKI TECHNICAL SA. and LATOMIKI SA for joint infringement of article 26 par. 6 of law 703/77 (now article 39 par. 5 law 3959/2011).