SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Lim Chong Kin and Corinne Chew, Drew & Napier LLC
Where the Commission conducts a search of the premises under warrant, the Commission’s officers will normally arrive at the premises dur - ing office hours. If no one is at the premises, the Commission’s officers will take reasonable steps to inform the occupier of the intended entry. The occupier and legal representative will be given a reasonable opportunity to be present when the warrant is executed. Where the Commission’s officer grants a request allowing an occupier’s legal representative a rea - sonable time to arrive at the premises, the Com - mission’s officer may impose such conditions as deemed appropriate, which may include the sealing of cabinets, keeping business records in the same state and places as when entry into the premises was effected, suspending external email, and allowing the Commission’s officers to occupy selected offices. The legal representative will only be given a reasonable time to arrive at the premises before a raid is executed. If the occupier has an in-house legal representative on the premises, the Commission’s officers will not wait for an external legal representative to arrive. In general, a warrant to conduct searches may only be granted if the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that with - in the premises to be searched there are: • documents that should be produced under Section 63 (by written notice) or 64 (in the course of an inspection without a warrant) of the Competition Act but have not been produced; • documents that an investigating officer, authorised person, inspector or person appointed by the inspector could have required to be produced under Section 64 but they were unable to access the premises; or
• documents that could be concealed, removed, tampered with or destroyed if the Commission were to require their production under Section 63. If a warrant is granted by the courts, the warrant may permit the Commission’s officers to do all or any of the following: • enter the premises and use such force as is reasonably necessary for the purpose of gain - ing entry; • search any person on the premises if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person has in their possession any document, equipment or article that has a bearing on the investigation; • search the premises and take copies or extracts from any document appearing to be the kind in respect of which the warrant was granted; • take possession of any document appearing to be the kind in respect of which the war - rant was granted, if necessary to preserve the document or prevent tampering, or if it is not reasonably practicable to make copies of it on the premises; • take any other step necessary to preserve the documents or prevent interference with them, including the sealing of premises, offices or files; • require any person to explain any document appearing to be the kind in respect of which the warrant was granted or state to the best of their knowledge where it could be found; • require any person on the premises to pro - duce any relevant document at such location, time, and in such form and manner as may be required by the Commission; • require any information stored in electronic form and accessible from the premises that the Commission’s officers consider to be
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