EU legal
professional privilege has developed
in a particular
field of EU law, namely EU competition law,
in the context of investigations carried out
by the competent EU competition law authority, the European Commission (the Commission) into violations of the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union prohibiting anticompetitive agreements and abuse of a dominant position (although,
in principle, the privilege could protect communications relating to other proceedings brought
by the Commission
in which the
rights of defence arise).