Dawn raid apps: Are they a good idea?

Many businesses have mobile phone apps on how to deal with dawn raids. These apps are often provided by advisors.

Business executives should be somewhat cautious about these apps.

In principle, they look like a good idea. They are convenient summaries of what business executives should, and should not, do if there is an unannounced inspection or dawn raid by a regulator or competition agency of a business or home.

But how do these apps work out in practice?

There are three main problems:

1. They are usually on devices which are actually seized by the inspectors. The devices are either seized to be copied (as in the case of, for example, the European Commission) or taken away for inspection (as in the case of, for example, Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission). Therefore, at the very time that the executive needs to read the information and advice on the device, the regulators have the device and the executive cannot access or read it.

2. There is sometimes doubt as to whether such general advice located on an app is really privileged legal advice because it is open to anyone who downloads the app and was usually not provided specifically to the undertaking being inspected.

3. Its very convenience. “I’ll be able to read it on the phone if there is a dawn raid”, means that many executives probably never read it in advance and will only do so when the raid happens (i.e. when the device could well be about to be taken by the regulators or agency).

While such apps do little or no harm, they are not as useful as some would believe.

It is better for executives to be trained, and update their training, on how to deal with dawn raids and, moreover, maintain (and this could sound old-fashioned) a paper-based brief guide or manual, covered by legal professional privilege, which is specific to their business and circumstances rather than rely entirely on apps.

See also a recent update on mobile phones and dawn raids here.

For more information on EU and national competition dawn raids and inspections, please contact Dr Vincent Power, Partner or any member of A&L Goodbody's EU, Competition & Procurement team.

Date published: 26 May 2025