The Competition Commission today raided the offices of three auto body firms as part of its investigation into collusive conduct in the market for auto body repairs. This is according to Leana Engelbrecht, Senior Associate in the Competition practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr.
She explains that the Commission may conduct dawn raids on firms where it has reasonable grounds to believe that a prohibited practice is taking place or that information or documentation relevant to an ongoing investigation is at the premises being raided and subject to obtaining (in most instances) a warrant to conduct the search and seizure operations.
“The Commission confirmed that these dawn raids are being conducted subject to the requisite warrants approving the search and seizure operations being obtained,” she notes.