S.L. 379.10 Art. 18Access to leniency statements.

(1) Access to leniency statements submitted pursuant to these Regulations shall only be granted to the parties subject to the relevant investigation by the Office, or are subject to proceedings which have been instituted before the Court under the relevant provisions of the Act, or who are party to any proceedings before the Court of Appeal instituted in terms of article 13B of the Act, and exclusively for the purposes of exercising their rights of defence.

(2) A party who has obtained access to the file concerning investigations by the Office and, or concerning proceedings before the Court or the Court of Appeal may only use information taken from leniency statements, where necessary to exercise his rights of defence in any proceedings before the courts of Malta, in cases that are directly related to the case in respect of which access has been granted, and only where such proceedings concern:

(a) the allocation between cartel participants of a penalty imposed jointly and severally on them by the Court; or

(b) an appeal before the Court of Appeal instituted in terms of article 13B of the Act from a judgement of the Court finding an infringement of articles 5 and, or 9 of the Act or of Articles 101 and, or 102 of the TFEU.

(3) Leniency statements submitted pursuant to these Regulations shall only be exchanged by the Office with other national competition authorities, pursuant to Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, either:

(a) with the consent of the applicant for leniency; or

(b) where the national competition authority receiving the leniency statement has also received a leniency application relating to the same infringement from the same applicant as that before the Office, provided that, at the time that the leniency statement is transmitted by the Office, it is not open to the applicant to withdraw the information which has been submitted by the applicant to the national competition authority receiving the leniency statement.

(4) The form in which leniency statements are submitted pursuant to regulation 12 shall neither affect the application of the preceding sub-regulations and nor that of article 12D of the Act.

(5) Any party who has obtained access to a leniency statement pursuant to sub-regulation (1) or (2), and their legal counsel shall bind themselves not to make any copies thereof by mechanical or electronic means of a leniency statement.