CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Marios Pelides and Dominique Pelides, Georgiades & Pelides
and parties subject to fines must be given the opportunity to be heard. Furthermore, where the CPC discovers that it has approved a concentration on the basis of false or misleading information, it may withdraw its approval, modify the terms of its approval, or require the parties to reverse the whole or part of the implementation of the concentration. Fines for the provision of inaccurate or mislead - ing information are not frequently imposed by the CPC. In a recent case (which involved a fail - ure to provide accurate information regarding a participant’s business activities as part of a notification), the CPC imposed an administrative fine of EUR25,000. 3.8 Review Process All notifications begin their life as Phase I inves - tigations. A Phase I investigation starts when a complete notification is submitted to the Service. The CPC must issue a decision within one cal - endar month from the date the CPC considers a complete filing has been received. “Decision”, in this case, means a statement by the CPC that: • the notified concentration does not fall within the ambit of the Law; or • the notified concentration does fall within the ambit of the Law but does not raise com - petition concerns (and the concentration is therefore approved); or • the notified concentration does fall within the ambit of the Law and raises competition concerns, and as a result, the CPC needs to proceed to a Phase II investigation. The CPC has the power to extend the one- month review deadline by an additional 14 days where it considers that the review deadline might be missed as a result of the complexity
or amount of information submitted as part of a notification. Any extension must be notified to the person submitting the notification at least seven days before the expiry of the original one- month review period. The CPC rarely implements extensions in practice. If the CPC does not issue a decision within the one-month deadline (or extended deadline if applicable), the concentration is deemed to have been approved. If the CPC decides to proceed to a Phase II investigation, it must issue a decision (either approving or rejecting the proposed concentra - tion) within a further three months from the date it considers it has received all of the information it requires for its investigation. As with Phase I investigations, the CPC has the power to extend the deadline for its review by an additional 14 days (or longer if the CPC considers that the delay is due to a failure or omission by any of the participants, eg, a failure to submit request - ed information). Clearance is deemed given if the CPC does not issue its decision within four months of receipt of a complete filing (or within such extended timeframe as may have been notified to participants by the CPC). In total therefore, a notification that has proceed - ed to a Phase II investigation may take between four and six months to resolve. 3.9 Pre-Notification Discussions With Authorities There is no official route by which parties may engage in pre-notification discussions with the CPC, and if parties attempt to do so, there is consequently no formal legal basis which would require the CPC to treat such discussions confi - dentially (although the CPC is subject to a gen - eral obligation to avoid disclosing confidential
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