The Free Competition Defense Court rejected the request from Dreams to exhibit documents from the case file.
Chile.- The Free Competition Defense Court (TDLC) dismissed the petition from Dreams in which it requested the National Economic Prosecutor's Office (FNE) to exhibit parts of the investigation file on which the requirement was based, accusing the casino operator, Marina del Sol, and five senior executives of these companies, of having colluded to affect the outcome of the casino licensing bids.
According to the local media Diario Financiero, this request was made after Dreams accused the TDLC of exposing isolated phrases, incomplete paragraphs, or messages taken out of context in its requirement, which - according to the company - “make it difficult to respond as legally appropriate” to said document.
However, the Court declared “no place” for the request of the casino operator arguing that “the exhibition of documents is regulated as a prejudicial measure and as a means of proof in the Civil Procedure Code”.
In its exposition, the TDLC explained that “accompanying the requirement with the founding documents of the accusation is not a legal requirement, its omission does not affect its possibility to respond to the requirement and no sufficient arguments have been given regarding an affectation to the right of defense. Moreover, the parties will be able to learn about the investigation file of the National Economic Prosecutor's Office at the corresponding procedural stage, given that the litigation has not yet been established” (litigation).
The local newspaper detailed that Dreams, through a document submitted to the TDLC, requested on November 7 to the FNE to exhibit “the pieces expressly cited in the requirement”, which - in its opinion - were partially cited.
In that sense, the gaming room operator explained that the prosecuting entity - to substantiate its allegations in the requirement - “referred to documents, conversations, or statements, in a decontextualized or downright incomplete, truncated, or truncated manner, for the convenience and advantage of the FNE”. For this reason, the company argued that fully knowing the conversations or paragraphs cited by the Prosecutor's Office is essential to be able to respond and exercise the right to defense of the accused.
In its document, Dreams defends itself arguing that “although our represented has never participated in any anti-competitive agreement, the truth is that its right to defense is significantly impaired by not being able to access these records or, at least, a complete version of them at the time of responding and taking charge of the facts that are imputed to it”.
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In that sense, the operator pointed out that there are almost 40 incomplete, truncated, or decontextualized citations, which are relevant to the case. Among them, it highlighted some such as “he who has, maintains”; “establishing trusts”; “a total destruction of the industry”; “with them it is better to talk (...) it is better to talk now”; “for us the best would be that each one applies in what they have and that nothing happens” or ““[and] I could have competed with you in Temuco and I did not compete (...) I do not want a surprise”, cites Diario Financiero.
Dreams considered that “this is extremely serious, as the requirement imputes a supposed collusive agreement based on interpretations of the content of, precisely, those communications or conversations that it cites in a partial or incomplete manner”.
the National Economic Prosecutor's Office (FNE) presented a requirement before the Free Competition Defense Court (TDLC) against Dreams, Enjoy, and Marina del Sol, the three main casino chains in Chile, and against five senior executives of these companies for having “colluded to affect the outcome of the national casino operation permit bids conducted by the Superintendence of Casinos of Games (SCJ) in 2020 and 2021”.
In its requirement, the FNE asked the TDLC to apply fines for fiscal benefit totaling 171,354 Annual Tax Units (UTA), equivalent to USD151.9m and that, in addition, it terminates the renewed permits to Dreams, Enjoy, and Marina del Sol in the mentioned bidding processes, extending their validity only until the casino gaming operations that are awarded in a new competitive process begin. These are the highest fines in history.
The National Economic Prosecutor, Jorge Grunberg, stated: “This collusion allowed Dreams, Enjoy, and Marina del Sol to renew for 15 years the permits they had to operate gaming casinos in the country, with economic offers that were well below those that would have been guaranteed by a competitive process. That is why we asked the TDLC to order the termination of such permits so that the damages of this cartel do not last for all the years that the licenses that were improperly obtained by the operators last”.
The highest fines were requested for Dreams, with 126,806 UTA (approximately USD112.4m); and for Enjoy, with 41,498 UTA (almost USD36.8m). Regarding the required executives, the FNE requested the payment of 1,218 UTA (approximately USD1m) in the case of the general manager of Dreams, Jaime Wilhelm; 941 UTA for the chairman of the board of Dreams, Claudio Fischer (about USD834,000); 761 UTA (about USD674,000) for the manager of administration and finance of Dreams, Claudio Tessada; and, 130 UTA (almost USD115,000) for the chairman of the board of Enjoy, Henry Comber.
