Switzerland and the European Union have opened negotiations for a formal agreement aimed at forging closer cooperation between competition authorities.
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swissinfo.ch and agencies
In a statement, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) said the bilateral agreement would facilitate the implementation of cartel law provisions on both sides.
Negotiations will also include the question of exchanging confidential information. Currently information exchange between Switzerland and EU member states takes place on an informal basis, Seco said.
“This informal cooperation does not permit any exchange of case-related information,” Seco said. “This gives rise to redundancies and can hamper efforts to combat cross-border competition restrictions.”
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