GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Anna Manda and Maria Kallidopoulou, Karatzas & Partners
including information located or available in oth - er jurisdictions. For this purpose, the HCC may seek assistance from foreign enforcement agencies (see 4.5 International Inter-Agency Co-Operation ). 4.4 Domestic Inter-Agency Co-Operation Pursuant to the GCA, the HCC must co-operate with regulatory or other authorities that moni - tor particular sectors of the national economy in relation to matters concerning the application of Article 1 and Article 1A of the GCA and Arti - cle 101 of the TFEU in the relevant sectors. In addition, as provided for in the GCA, the EETT may request the assistance of the HCC when enforcing competition rules in the electronic tel - ecommunications sector and the postal sector. Since 2020, the HCC has entered into several memoranda of understanding (MoU) – namely, with the Hellenic Regulatory Authority for Energy ( Rythmistikí Archí Enérgeias , or RAE) (Septem - ber 2020), with the Regulatory Authority for Ports ( Rythmistikí Archí Liménon , or RAL) (April 2021), with the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (July 2022) and with the Hellenic Data Protec - tion Authority (August 2022) – to enhance co- operation between the HCC and other authori - ties. The HCC has also signed MoU with various consumer organisations and Greek universities. 4.5 International Inter-Agency Co- Operation The HCC closely co-operates with the EC, the national competition authorities of the EU mem - ber states, and the national competition authori - ties of non-EU member states with which the HCC has signed memoranda of co-operation (eg, the national competition authorities of Morocco, South Africa, Israel, Egypt, Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia and Armenia).
For the purpose of enforcing the competition law rules, the HCC, the EC and the national compe - tition authorities of the EU member states have the power to exchange evidence, including con - fidential information in the context of the Euro - pean Competition Network. In addition, the HCC may request the national competition authority of an EU member state to take any investigative measure on its territory on behalf of the HCC. 4.6 Issuing Criminal Indictments As described in 1.2 Regulatory/Enforcement Agencies and Penalties , the HCC does not have the power to impose criminal sanctions as this lies within the competence of the criminal courts. In order for a case to be brought before the Greek criminal courts, criminal proceedings should be initiated by the prosecutor. The prose - cutor initiates criminal proceedings upon receiv - ing a complaint or ex officio. The prosecutor will subsequently initiate a preliminary investigation, during which the defendant has the right to be heard by the relevant inspecting officers. When the initial investigation is complete, the prosecu - tor may decide to: • bring the case before the Greek criminal courts; • dismiss the case in the event of insufficient evidence; or • order a further investigation process where additional evidence is deemed necessary. In essence, the public prosecutor is the one establishing the facts of the case and bearing the burden to establish the defendant’s guilt, whereas the court tribunal applies the law to those facts. The competent criminal court that hears cartel cases consists of three judges, who examine
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