The European Commission has launched a new consultation on whether national competition authorities in EU Member States should be given additional tools to enforce EU antitrust rules.

The Commission is inviting comments on its proposals for potential EU legislative actions to further strengthen the enforcement and sanctioning tools of national competition authorities.

EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager said:

"The EU antitrust rules serve European citizens and businesses by contributing to the right conditions for economic growth. For over ten years, national competition authorities have played a key role in enforcing EU antitrust rules alongside the Commission. Thanks to this cooperation at EU and national levels, competition rules have been applied more thoroughly and effectively than would otherwise have been possible. We are now taking stock to see if we can further improve the toolbox of national competition authorities. I would like to hear the views of all those interested to find the best way forward".

According to the Commission, the entry into force of new Regulations in 2004 transformed the competition enforcement landscape, giving national competition authorities and national courts a key role in applying the EU rules on restrictive business practices and abuses of dominant market positions.

The Commission said that while EU competition rules are now being applied on a scale that it could never have achieved on its own, there is still room for improvement.

Last year the Commission identified a number of concrete areas of action to boost enforcement powers of national competition authorities and address differences between national systems.

Following further fact-finding and discussions with both national competition authorities and Member State ministries, the public consultation now invites a broad range of stakeholders to provide feedback on potential improvements:

to ensure that all national competition authorities have the right tools to detect and sanction violations of EU competition rules;

to ensure national competition authorities have effective leniency programmes that encourage companies to come forward, possibly in several jurisdictions, with evidence of illegal cartels; and

to safeguard the independence of national competition authorities when enforcing EU competition law, and ensure they have the resources and staff needed to do their work.

The EC said it appears that national competition authorities may face difficulties relating to their powers of investigation or to their ability to impose effective fines for anticompetitive behaviour.

Deadline for submission of responses to the public consultation is 12 February 2016. The Commission will then carefully review all input before deciding whether and to what extent it should take further action.

Click here to access the public consultation online