Competition law and SMEs: practical guide on compliance programmes published by the Belgian Competition Authority

On 4 July 2016, the Belgian Competition Authority published a practical guide on compliance programmes for SMEs.

Competition law forbids illegal cartels and anti-competitive agreements between undertakings and abuses of dominant position. All companies, including SMEs, have to be aware of those rules and comply with them. 

Therefore, this practical guide aims at presenting competition law that must be applied by all undertakings in Belgium. It also sets out the sanctions in case of infringement. Furthermore, it explains how undertakings can adopt compliance programmes in order to help them comply with those rules, evaluate the risks, train their staff (namely through a code of conduct) and implement a competition compliance follow-up.

Unfortunately, the guide is not detailed enough to constitute a real practical guide for the target undertakings. 

The guide is available here (French – not yet available in English).