Recent developments in Swiss competition law

I. Introduction

1. In economic theory, transparency of information is usually seen as a positive condition, which contributes to effective competition. When one turns to competition law, however, it seems that parties are often reluctant for the decisions or judgments relating to their activities and transactions to be published. This sensitivity may sometimes seem rather surprising, especially when one takes into account the rather well-established jurisprudence in this field. In addition, the decisions taken by the Competition Commission¹ in some of these cases may seem a priori trivial and causing no harm to the parties. For instance, undertakings always consider the lack of objection on the part of Comco in a merger control procedure during the first phase of this examination as a piece of good news.² However, the information contained within the authority’s decision may constitute business…