This app tells you what to do in a dawn raid

Baker McKenzie has launched an expanded version of its Global Dawn Raid App, a mobile application that provides clients experiencing a raid with real-time step-by-step guidance on their rights and obligations.

The expanded ‘Global Dawn Raid App’ provides guidance and response teams for anti-bribery, antitrust and tax raids, the legal advisory firm said.

Leana Engelbrecht, a senior associate at Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg noted that dawn raids have always been an important enforcement tool for competition regulators.

“They provide the regulator with a wide scope of powers to enter and search the premises of a company under investigation for anti-competitive conduct and to seize any document or item. During 2017, the South African Competition Commission twice raided fresh produce agents suspected of price fixing and raided an unprecedented 25 fire sprinkler installers.

“It is, however, not only competition regulators that are empowered to conduct dawn raids and many other regulators have these powers, notably white-collar crime enforcers and tax regulators,” Engelbrecht said.

Increasingly, agencies coordinate their investigations, so a company can find itself being raided in several countries on the same day. The app provides practical assistance and peace of mind for individuals on the ground handling unannounced inspections.

It answers a whole range of practical questions on a country by country basis under local law such as “Can inspectors demand passwords to allow IT access?” “Can employees leave the building with their laptops?”

Key features of the App include:

• Coverage of 44 key jurisdictions, including South Africa and Egypt, covering both local administrative and criminal laws
• Automatic click-through to the correct country checklist with step-by-step practical guidance on what to do and what not to do for civil and criminal anti-bribery, antitrust and tax raids
• Ability to contact a local Baker McKenzie specialist directly, with specific teams ready to respond to an anti-bribery, antitrust or tax raid.
• Camera accessibility so users can take and send photos of the dawn raid warrant and other key documents allowing Baker McKenzie to provide immediate legal support before even arriving at the site of the raid.Antitrust Dawn Raid guidance relating to China and Japan are available in Mandarin and Japanese translation

Baker McKenzie’s Global Dawn Raid App is an expansion of the Firm’s Global Antitrust Dawn Raid App, which was launched in April 2017 and is available on IoS.

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