Member Article

On August 26, 2020, Resolution No. 000093-2020-PRE/INDECOPI was published in the Official Gazette “El Peruano”, which adopts the Directive that establishes the procedure for payment of rewards under the scope of Article 28 of the Single Ordered Text of the Law for the Repression of Anticompetitive Conduct (the "Directive" and the "Competition Law", respectively).

The purpose of the Directive is to establish the internal procedure of mandatory application for all INDECOPI bodies to make payments to beneficiaries of the rewards program, in accordance with Article 28 of the Competition Law.

Among the main aspects of the Directive, the following stand out: 1. Relevant definitions.-

(i) Beneficiary: A natural person who, by virtue of a reward commitment, is paid a reward in his favor.

(ii) Commitment of rewards: Document signed between the Technical Secretariat of the Commission for the Defense of Free Competition (“ST” and “CLC”, respectively) and a reward applicant, which specifies the obligations and conditions under which the latter may benefit from a reward.

(iii) Reward: Amount of money that INDECOPI transfers to the beneficiary, by virtue of a reward commitment, once the requirements set forth in the Law and the Guidelines have been met. The reward may be paid in full or in part, according to the reward commitment.

2. Enforceability of the reward.- For a Reward to be enforceable, the following conditions must be verified: (i) the Beneficiary has entered into a Reward Commitment with the TS; (ii) the Beneficiary has complied with the obligations and conditions established in the Rewards Commitment, the Competition Law and the Rewards Program Guidelines (“Guidelines”); and (iii) the full or partial payment corresponds to the status of the investigation or the procedure in which the collaboration takes place, in accordance with the Reward Commitment and the Guidelines.

3. Identity of the beneficiary.- The identity of the Beneficiary shall be confidential and shall receive the same treatment as the information declared reserved by the CLC. The unauthorized disclosure of such information shall entail administrative responsibility for the offending official, regardless of the civil or criminal responsibility that may correspond.

In addition, the information on the identity of the collaborator shall be exclusively accessible to the Administration and Finance Management ("GAF") and the Finance and Accounting Sub-management ("SFG") of INDECOPI, for the sole purpose of ensuring the timely processing of payment requests. In this sense, in any communication referring to the Recipient of a reward, the assigned code or pseudonym shall be used.

4. Request for payment of rewards.- After verifying the enforceability of a Reward, the ST sends to the GAF a request for payment of Rewards in favor of the Beneficiary, which is processed in a special reserved notebook with limited access to authorized officials involved in this procedure.

This request must contain the following information: (i) number of the file in which the request is processed; (ii) indication that the requirements and conditions for making the requested payment have been met; (iii) exact amount to be paid; (iv) pseudonym or code of the applicant; and (v) expenditure budget credit certificate number issued by the Management of Planning and Institutional Management (“GPG”).

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact Verónica Sattler ([email protected]) and/or Laura Zúñiga ([email protected]).