Home > Legal articles > European Commission can search private devices during raids
The European Commission recently revised its explanatory note on dawn raids to clarify that employees’ personal devices and media can be searched during raids. The revised note further explains that Commission officials may search the company’s IT environment as well as storage media, such as external hard disks, backup tapes and cloud services. Business executives should therefore be prepared to give up their personal smartphones for inspection if used for work purposes. In addition, IT personnel should be trained to assist the Commission officials with specific tasks, such as temporarily blocking individual email accounts, temporarily disconnecting running computers from the network, removing and re-installing hard drives, and providing administrator-access rights.
De Brauw has developed a dawn raid app that offers practical information on what to do during a dawn raid and outlines the follow-up steps to take after the raid. Click on the link below to go to the app.
17 February 2021
Guidance on green cooperation: Dutch competition authority leads the way
17 February 2021
Green competition: how consumer law can help prevent misleading sustainability claims
17 February 2021
Signed charter needed for foreign in-house counsel to have legal privilege
17 December 2020
Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act: Commission flexes its muscles
16 November 2020
Fake online reviews – back as area of enforcement by competition authorities
12 November 2020
23 October 2020
Privilege of foreign in-house counsel: English court sets standard, Dutch to follow?
15 October 2020
14 October 2020
Foreign investment screening in Dutch vital sectors – what we know so far
14 October 2020
Investment screening in the Dutch telecoms sector as of 1 October 2020
De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek
Claude Debussylaan 80
1082 MD Amsterdam
The Netherlands
P.O. Box 75084
1070 AB Amsterdam
The Netherlands