rec_17

(17) The operational independence of national administrative competition authorities should be strengthened in order to ensure the effective and uniform application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. To this end, express provision should be made in national law to ensure that when applying Articles 101 and 102 TFEU, national administrative competition authorities are protected against external intervention or political pressure that is liable to jeopardise their independent assessment of the matters before them. For that purpose, the grounds regarding the dismissal from the national administrative competition authority of those persons who take decisions exercising the powers referred to in Articles 10, 11, 12, 13 and 16 of this Directive should be laid down in advance in national law in order to remove any reasonable doubt as to their impartiality and their imperviousness to external factors. Similarly, clear and transparent rules and procedures for the selection, recruitment or appointment of those persons should be laid down in advance in national law. Moreover, to ensure the impartiality of national administrative competition authorities, the fines that they impose for infringements of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU should not be used to finance these authorities directly.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.