The Luxembourg Administrative Tribunal and the Competition Authorities clarify the leniency regime and introduce a marker system

The Luxembourg administrative tribunal (“Tribunal”) adopted on 13 June 2007 a landmark decision by clarifying the leniency procedure introduced by article 19 of the law of 17 May 2004 on competition (“the Law on competition”). The facts of the case were the following : a company, subject to an investigation of the competition authorities, and suspected having participated to a cartel, made a leniency application to the competition council (“Council”) shortly after a dawn raid operated by the competition inspectorate (“Inspectorate”). The Council adopted on 27 June 2006 a so-called “avis de clémence” stating that the conditions to benefit from a reduction of a fine were not given. The Council estimated that the mere fact of admitting having participated to a cartel without submitting any