ICN Framework for Competition Agency Procedures (CAP)

The CAP is designed to strengthen procedural fairness in competition law enforcement. The CAP is open to all national, multinational, or customs territory competition agencies – both ICN members and non-ICN member agencies – that are willing to adhere to the substantive Principles on procedural fairness set forth in the CAP and to participate in the Cooperation Process and the Review Process under the CAP, which encourage agencies to discuss their processes and procedural issues and allow participants to review the progress of the CAP regularly. Though the CAP is non-binding, by joining the CAP each Participant agrees that it intends in good faith to adhere to the framework to the extent consistent with applicable laws. The CAP is the ICN’s third opt-in implementation framework for competition agencies, following earlier ones on merger and cartel enforcement cooperation. The CAP was established by the ICN Steering Group building on principles fully consistent with existing ICN work products and making use of the ICN infrastructure to maximize visibility and impact while minimizing the administrative burden for participants operating in different legal regimes and enforcement systems and within different resource constraints.

For competition agencies: to register for the CAP, submit the registration form to the CAP co-chairs linked below or the ICN Secretariat.

• Australia Competition and Consumer Commission
• German Bundeskartellamt
• Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection

The CAP co-chairs welcome queries from CAP participants and non-participants.