Today the Bundeskartellamt has published draft “Guidelines on the premature deletion of an entry in the Competition Register due to self-cleaning” and a draft “Practical guide on filing an application for premature deletion”. Interested parties are invited to comment on these documents as part of a public consultation.

The Competition Register for Public Procurement provides public contracting authorities with information allowing them to assess whether a company must or can be excluded from a public procurement procedure for having committed economic offences. If such a company has undergone a process referred to as “self-cleaning” under public procurement law, entries in the Competition Register can be deleted prematurely. In late March 2021, the Bundeskartellamt commenced operating the Competition Register – starting with the registration of public bodies (see press release of 25 March 2021).

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “In these guidelines we specify the steps that are necessary for the premature deletion of an entry in the Competition Register. Companies have to review their previous misconduct and establish preventive compliance measures for the future. At the same time, we are publishing a practical guide on filing an application for premature deletion, which should also contribute to a swift assessment and help especially small and medium-sized companies to successfully undergo self-cleaning.”

The procedure for premature deletion due to self-cleaning is governed by Section 8 of the German Competition Register Act (Wettbewerbsregistergesetz – WRegG). The Competition Register Act stipulates that as the authority maintaining the register, the Bundeskartellamt has to decide on such applications for premature deletion and specify the legal requirements for self-cleaning in corresponding guidelines.

The requirements stipulate, among other things, that a company must provide compensation for any damage caused by its misconduct, actively cooperate with the investigating authorities and adopt technical, organisational and personnel measures to prevent further misconduct (compliance measures). The guidelines are supplemented by a practical guide on filing an application for premature deletion.

Interested parties are invited to submit their comments on both draft documents by 20 July 2021.

The draft “Guidelines on the premature deletion of an entry in the Competition Register due to self-cleaning” and the “Practical guide on filing an application for premature deletion” are available in German only on the Bundeskartellamt’s website.

The comments are intended for publication. Please let us know if you do not wish your comments to be published. In this case, only the fact that we have received comments and the name of the party submitting the comments will be mentioned on the Bundeskartellamt’s website.