The new regulation incorporates modifications to matters regulated by DL 211 with respect to the crime of collusion and compensated betrayal.
The Law on Economic Crimes and Attempts against the Environment incorporates a new concept of offenses to our legislation, modifying several legal bodies and introducing a special regulatory framework to address offenses committed in the business environment.
Among the main novelties of this law, we find a new category of offense with the introduction of economic crimes, understood as those committed in the exercise of a position in the company or by a public official at the behest of someone who has a position in a company.
It is important to mention that on september 1, 2024 the regime applicable to companies will enter into force, radically changing the regulatory scenario in our country.
Regarding Free Competition, this law takes offenses already regulated by Decree 211 and incorporates them to its catalog, adapting them to the new regulations. It also makes a series of amendments to certain articles.
In the first place, the conducts that qualify as first category economic crimes are:
- Concealing information or providing erroneous information with a penalty of minimum to medium term imprisonment.
- Alleging collusive agreements with false antecedents with a penalty of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree.
- Collusion crime with a penalty of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree to major imprisonment in its minimum degree.
In those cases of the crime of collusion, a section on the liability of legal entities for this infraction is included in Article 65, which mentions that, as long as the law does not coordinate the concurrence of the different penalties, sanctions and measures that may be applied to a company for the infraction and crime of collusion, they will not have criminal liability or will not be criminally liable for the commission of this crime.
On the other hand, Article 59 of the law incorporates amendments to matters regulated by DL 211 with respect to the crime of collusion and kickbacks.
With respect to the first, paragraphs II, III and IV of article 62 of DL 211, which are related to the penalties of disqualification to opt for managerial positions, as well as the rules regarding mitigating and aggravating circumstances with respect to the crime of collusion, were repealed.
In this way, they are replaced by the regime of disqualifications and aggravating and mitigating circumstances established in the Criminal Code for economic crimes, also indicated by this law.
Regarding the second point, we highlight the attenuation of the penalties determined for the agreements and their applicability in cases of leniency, in the same line as above. In this case, the current system is maintained, which exempts from the dissolution of the legal entity, the criminal sanction and the fine to whoever provides concrete background information resulting in the conviction of a collusion.
In order to obtain the exemption from criminal liability, it is necessary to make a statement before the Public Prosecutor’s Office, corroborating the background information and statements provided to the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE).
Likewise, the transitional rules of the Economic Crimes Law on effective cooperation apply to these cases, until the inter-institutional coordination system in this area is fully established.
For more information on these issues, please contact our Public Law and Regulated Markets team:
Antonio Rubilar | Partner | arubilar@az.cl
Dafne Guerra | Director Life Sciences and Free Competition | dguerra@az.cl
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