Legal professional privilege in competition law investigations : has the status of in-house lawyers changed?

This Competition Policy Brief discusses whether 'legal professional privilege' ('LPP') should be extended to cover certain in-house lawyer advice. It briefly outlines the position taken by the EU courts on this matter and the calls for such an extension of LPP in the context of the evaluation of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 ('Regulation 1/2003'). It then provides an overview of the situation at Member State level and an assessment of whether an extension of LPP to in-house lawyers in the Commission's investigations would be warranted. It concludes that extending the protection of LPP to in-house lawyers would not be justified from the perspectives of EU law or of enforcement policy.