Cap. 510 Art. 29Identification and protection of confidential information.

(1)Any person, undertaking or association of undertakings or any other body which submits information or comments in one of the situations listed hereunder or subsequently submits further information to the Director General in the course of an investigation, shall clearly identify any material which it considers to be confidential, giving reasons therefor, and provide a separate non-confidential version, where applicable by the date set by the

Director General for making its submissions known:

(a) a complainant lodging a complaint under the Competition Act or under the Consumer Affairs Act;

(b) a person, undertaking or association of undertakings or any other body complying with a request for the provision of information under the provisions of this Act, the Competition Act, the Consumer Affairs Act and any other Act, or regulations made thereunder;

(c) an addressee of objections made under the Control of Concentrations Regulations making known his views on the objection;

(d) the addressee of an invitation by the Director General to engage in settlement discussions under article 12B

of the Competition Act;

(e) the addressee of an invitation by the Director General to engage in commitments discussions under article 12A of the Consumer Affairs Act;

(f) any person making a reasonable allegation in writing according to article 12(1) of the Consumer Affairs Act.

(2) Without prejudice to sub-article (1), the Directors General may require persons, undertakings and an association of undertakings or any other body that submit documents or statements pursuant to this Act, the Competition Act, the Consumer

Affairs Act and any other Act, or regulations made thereunder to identify the documents or parts of documents which they consider to contain business secrets or other confidential information belonging to them and to identify the undertakings with regard to which such documents are to be considered confidential.

(3) In the case of a decision adopted by the Director General (Competition) under article 17 of the Competition Act, or in the case of any information or material published in terms of article 19 of the said Competition Act, or in the case of objections or a decision under the Control of Concentrations Regulations, or in any other case where the Director General considers it necessary, the persons, undertakings and associations of undertakings concerned may be required to identify any part of any decision, objections, publications or documents which in their view, contains business secrets or other confidential information.

(4) The Directors General may set a time-limit within which persons, undertakings or association of undertakings or any other body are to:

(a) substantiate their claim for confidentiality with regard to each individual document or part of such document, statement or part of such statement;

(b) provide the Director General with a non-confidential version of the documents or statements, in which the confidential passages are deleted; and

(c) provide a concise description of each part of the deleted information.

(5) In the event that persons, undertakings or an association of undertakings or any other body fail to comply with sub-articles (1) to (3), the Director General may deem that the documents or statements concerned do not contain confidential information and may consequently assume that the persons, undertakings or association of undertakings or other body have no objections to the disclosure of the documents or statements concerned in their entirety.

(6) Where persons, undertakings or an association of undertakings or any other body meet the conditions set out in sub-articles (1) to (3), the Director General shall:

(a) either provisionally accept the claims which appear justified; or

(b) inform the person or undertaking or association of undertakings or any other body that he does not agree with the confidentiality claim in whole or in part, where it is apparent that the claim is unjustified.

(7) The Director General may reverse his provisional acceptance of the confidentiality claim in whole or in part at a later stage.

(8) Where the Director General does not agree with the confidentiality claim from the outset or where he takes the view that the provisional acceptance of the confidentiality claim should be reversed, and thus intends to disclose information, the Director General will inform the person or undertaking or association of undertakings or any other body in writing of his intention to disclose information, give his reasons and set a time-limit within which such person or undertaking or association of undertakings or any other body may inform him in writing of its views. If, following submission of those views, a disagreement on the confidentiality claim persists, the Director General shall take a decision thereon.

(9) In those cases where the person or undertaking or association of undertakings or any other body does not agree with the decision of the Director General issued under sub-article (8) the person or undertaking or association of undertakings or any other body may request a review thereof by sworn application to the Civil Court within ten days from when the decision of the Director General is notified: Provided that the Civil Court shall appoint and decide any matter under this sub-article within the shortest time possible: Provided further that the decision of the Civil Court shall be final and no appeal or challenge shall lie from such decision.

(10) Complainants or undertakings or an association of undertakings or any other body or any person collaborating in an investigation carried out by the Offices shall, should they wish to remain anonymous, make a request to that effect to the Director General. The Director General shall accede to such request for anonymity if he considers the request to be justified. The Director General shall protect anonymity by providing access to a non-confidential version or summary of the documents submitted. Sub-articles (6) and (7) shall apply to requests for anonymity. Where the Director General does not consider the request for anonymity to be justified, sub-articles (8) and (9) shall apply.