Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014

Powers of authorised officers in relation to investigations under Act of 2002

37. (1) For the purpose of obtaining any information which may be required in relation to a matter under investigation under the Act of 2002 an authorised officer may, on production of a warrant issued under subsection (3) authorising him or her to exercise one or more specified powers under subsection (2), exercise that power or those powers.

(2) The powers mentioned in subsection (1) are the following:

(a) to enter, if necessary by reasonable force, and search any place at which any activity in connection with the business of supplying or distributing goods or providing a service, or in connection with the organisation or assistance of persons engaged in any such business, is carried on;

(b) to enter, if necessary by reasonable force, and search any place occupied by a director, manager or any member of staff of an undertaking that carries on an activity or of an association of undertakings that carry on activities, being, in either case, a place in respect of which there are reasonable grounds to believe books, documents or records relating to the carrying on of that activity or those activities are being kept in it;

(c) to seize and retain any books, documents or records relating to an activity found at any place referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) and take any other steps which appear to the officer to be necessary for preserving, or preventing interference with, such books, documents or records;

(d) to require any person who carries on an activity referred to in paragraph (a) and any person employed in connection therewith to—

(i) give to the authorised officer his or her name, home address and occupation, and

(ii) provide to the authorised officer any books, documents or records relating to that activity which are in that person’s power or control, and to give to the officer such information as he or she may reasonably require in regard to any entries in such books, documents or records, and where such books, documents or records are kept in a non-legible form to reproduce them in a legible form;

(e) to inspect and take copies of or extracts from any such books, documents or records, including in the case of information in a non-legible form, copies of or extracts from such information in a permanent legible form;

(f) to require a person mentioned in paragraph (d) to give to the authorised officer any information he or she may require in regard to the persons carrying on the activity referred to in paragraph (a) (including in particular, in the case of an unincorporated body of persons, information in regard to the membership thereof and its committee of management or other controlling authority) or employed in connection therewith;

(g) to require a person mentioned in paragraph (d) to give to the authorised officer any other information which the officer may reasonably require in regard to the activity referred to in paragraph (a).

(3) If a judge of the District Court is satisfied by information on oath of an authorised officer that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that evidence of, or relating to, the commission of an offence under the Act of 2002 is to be found in any place, the judge may issue a warrant authorising an authorised officer (accompanied by such other authorised officers or members of An Garda Síochána or both as provided for in subsection (5) of section 35 ) at any time or times within one month from the date of issue of the warrant, on production if so requested of the warrant, to enter and search the place using reasonable force where necessary, and exercise all or any of the powers conferred on an authorised officer under this section.

(4) The reference in subsection (3) to an offence under the Act of 2002 shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to include a reference to the taking by the Commission of proceedings (whether civil or criminal), and the taking of proceedings by the Director of Public Prosecutions, in relation to any contravention of an enactment repealed by section 48 of the Act of 2002 that the Commission suspects has occurred.

(5) Where a member of An Garda Síochána arrests, whether in a Garda Síochána station or elsewhere, a person whom he or she, with reasonable cause, suspects of committing or of having committed an offence under section 6 or 7 of the Act of 2002 and the person has been taken to and detained in a Garda Síochána station, or if the person is arrested in a Garda Síochána station, has been detained in the station, pursuant to section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 , an authorised officer or officers (but not more than 2 such officers) may, if and for so long as the officer or officers is, or are, accompanied by a member of An Garda Síochána, attend at, and participate in, the questioning of a person so detained in connection with the investigation of the offence, but only if the member of An Garda Síochána requests the authorised officer or officers to do so and the member is satisfied that the attendance at, and participation in, such questioning of the authorised officer or officers is necessary for the proper investigation of the offence concerned.

(6) An authorised officer who attends at, and participates in, the questioning of a person in accordance with subsection (5) may not commit any act or make any omission which, if committed or made by a member of An Garda Síochána, would be a contravention of any regulation made under section 7 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 .

(7) An act committed or omission made by an authorised officer who attends at, and participates in, the questioning of a person in accordance with subsection (6) which, if committed or made by a member of An Garda Síochána, would be a contravention of any regulation made under section 7 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 shall not of itself render the authorised officer liable to any criminal or civil proceedings or of itself affect the lawfulness of the custody of the detained person or the admissibility in evidence of any statement made by him or her.

(8) Where a person is before a court charged with an offence under section 6 or 7 of the Act of 2002, a copy of any recording of the questioning of the person by a member of An Garda Síochána or authorised officer while he or she was detained in a Garda Síochána station, or such questioning elsewhere, in connection with the investigation of the offence shall be given to the person or his or her legal representative only if the court so directs and subject to such conditions (if any) as the court may specify.

(9) A recording referred to in subsection (8) of the questioning of a person shall not be given to the person by An Garda Síochána except in accordance with a direction or order of a court made under that subsection or otherwise.

(10) A court may admit in evidence at the trial of a person in respect of an offence under section 6 or 7 of the Act of 2002—

(a) a recording by electronic or similar means, or

(b) a transcript of such a recording,

or both, of the questioning of the person by a member of An Garda Síochána or authorised officer at a Garda Síochána station or elsewhere in connection with the investigation of the offence.

(11) Any statement made by the person concerned that is recorded in a recording which is admitted in evidence under subsection (10) may be admissible in evidence at the trial concerned notwithstanding the fact that—

(a) it was not taken down in writing at the time it was made, or

(b) that statement is not in writing and signed by the person who made it,

or both.

(12) Subsections (10) and (11) shall not affect the admissibility in evidence at the trial of a person in respect of an offence of any statement that is recorded in writing made by the person during questioning by a member of An Garda Síochána or authorised officer at a Garda Síochána station or elsewhere in connection with the investigation of the offence (whether or not that statement is signed by the person) and irrespective of whether the making of that statement is recorded by electronic or similar means.

(13) Section 9 of the Criminal Law Act 1976 shall apply in relation to a search carried out by an authorised officer pursuant to a warrant issued under subsection (3) as it applies to a search carried out by a member of An Garda Síochána in the course of exercising his or her powers under that Act.

(14) In this section “recording” means a recording on tape of—

(a) an oral communication, statement or utterance, or

(b) a series of visual images which, when reproduced on tape, appear as a moving picture,

or both.