Chapter on Digital Evidence Gathering

In today’s world of advancing technologies, more and more information is being generated, stored and distributed by electronic means. This requires many competition agencies to increase the use of digital evidence gathering as a frequent or standard tool in their fight against cartels. This version of the Chapter represents a second revision. The previous version of the Chapter was released in March 2010, and was based on information collected from ICN members in November 2009 by means of a questionnaire to which 24 member agencies participated. The March 2010 version of the Chapter was an update to the original version, which was published in 2004. This version of the Chapter is streamlined from the two previous versions, and was updated after receiving input from a number of competition agencies and non-government advisors. The goal of this Chapter is to help readers better understand the range of ICN member approaches to digital evidence gathering and to identify good practices and procedures with respect to digital evidence gathering and the use of digital evidence in the context of the investigation, adjudication or prosecution of cartels.