By a ruling of the Competition Appeals Board in the case number.
3/2023, Brim hf. v. The Competition Authority, was annulled
Decision of the Competition Authority no. 29/2023. In that decision, measures were imposed
Daily penalties on Brim Ltd. to compel the submission of data for an investigation into
management and ownership links of fisheries companies. The Competition Authority had
An agreement was made with the Ministry of Food which secured funding for the project.
The appeal board's ruling came to the conclusion
that it was not consistent with the role assigned to the Competition Authority in
competition law to enter into specific agreements with
the authorities on individual observations. Furthermore, it shall not be considered that
The Competition Authority has the power to exercise its powers in respect of
an investigation which, in the opinion of the appeal board, is established in such a manner. Accordingly
It was the committee's conclusion that the conditions were not met.
To impose daily fines on Brim.
The Competition Authority decided to accept the ruling
of the appeals board. For that reason, the Competition Authority has terminated the contract.
to the Ministry of Food, dated 19 September 2022, which created the supervision
operational scope to complete the said review this year. The contract was
terminated by letter, dated 29 September last.
Accordingly, the Competition Authority gave the Treasury
the government's instruction to refund the funds it had received
Paid on the basis of the agreement. Have those funds now been reimbursed.
Furthermore, companies that the Competition Authority had
having requested information from, been informed that the supervisory authority had ceased that
An examination of the management and ownership relationships in the Icelandic fishing industry which was presented
on the supervisory authority's website on 5 October 2022, pursuant to an information request to the companies
from April 2023.
As is set out in notification
on the Competition Authority's website, dated 20 September, has
The Competition Authority intends to launch a new investigation into management and
ownership links between fishing companies. Further decisions on the arrangements for that
Inspections or schedules are not available. For further information, please refer to previous
Announcements.
The Competition Authority has received requests from several
to companies in the fishing industry about the destruction of the data that was obtained in
the review. In paragraph 1 of Article 24 of the Act on
Official Archives No. 77/2014 provides that it is forbidden to destroy or dispose of
any document in the archives of the parties falling under paragraph 1 or 2 of Article 14.
paragraph, unless it is done on the basis of the approval of the national archivist, or under regulations pursuant to section 23.
Article ... or paragraph 2 of Article 24 of the Act. The Competition Authority sought the views
National Archives on pending requests for the deletion of data. National Archives
informed the Competition Authority that it was its position that despite
According to the decision of the Competition Appeals Board No. 3/2023, the said data were considered documents in
as understood in point 2 of paragraph 1 of Article 2 of the Act on Public Archives, and therefore the provision
Article 24 of the same Act applies to them. Consequently, the Competition Authority is
It is forbidden to delete the said data, unless the specific consent of the National Archivist is obtained.
The Competition Authority is looking into these matters more closely.
The Competition Authority has, however, confirmed with
the relevant company that it will not in subsequent inspections base on data or
information provided in response to the supervisory authority's request for information, dated.
5 April 2023. Subsequent observations in this area will therefore be based on new
Data collection.
"*" indicates required fields
