### Competition Ordinance 《競爭條例》

118. Reference by Court of First Instance or Tribunal to Commission for investigation
(1) In any proceedings before the Court of First Instance or the Tribunal in which a contravention, or involvement in a contravention, of a conduct rule is alleged, the Court or the Tribunal may, either of its own motion or on application by a party to the proceedings, refer the alleged contravention or alleged involvement to the Commission for investigation under this Ordinance.
(2) Where the Court of First Instance or the Tribunal has referred an alleged contravention, or alleged involvement in a contravention, of a conduct rule to the Commission for investigation, it may stay the proceedings before it pending—
(a) in the case of a referral by the Tribunal, the completion of the Commission’s investigation; or
(b) in the case of a referral by the Court, the completion of the Commission’s investigation and any subsequent proceedings in the Tribunal brought as a result of the investigation.

119. Findings of contravention of conduct rules
(1) This section applies to proceedings under this Part before the Court of First Instance or the Tribunal in which a contravention, or involvement in a contravention, of a conduct rule is alleged in relation to a particular act.
(2) Subject to subsection (3), in such proceedings the Court of First Instance or the Tribunal (as the case requires) is bound by an earlier decision of the Court or Tribunal that the act in question is a contravention, or involvement in a contravention, of the conduct rule.
(3) Subsection (2) does not apply in relation to a decision of the Court of First Instance or the Tribunal until the period specified in subsection (4) has expired.
(4) The period mentioned in subsection (3) is—
(a) the period during which an appeal may be made to the Court of Appeal under section 154; and
(b) where an appeal has been made to the Court of Appeal, the period during which a further appeal may be made to the Court of Final Appeal,
and, where such an appeal or further appeal is made, the period specified in paragraph (a) or (b) includes the period before the appeal is determined.

### Competition Ordinance 《競爭條例》

120. Intervention by Commission
(1) This section applies to proceedings involving an alleged contravention, or alleged involvement in a contravention, of a conduct rule, before the specified Court or the Tribunal, that are brought by a person other than the Commission.
(2) The Commission may, with the leave of the specified Court or the Tribunal, and subject to any conditions imposed by the specified Court or the Tribunal, intervene in any such proceedings.
(3) An application for leave under this section must be made in the prescribed form and must be served by the Commission on each party to the proceedings.
(4) If the Commission intervenes in proceedings under this section, the Commission becomes, as from the date of the grant of leave, a party to the proceedings and has all the rights, duties and liabilities of a party to the proceedings.
(5) In this section—

specified Court (指明法院) means—
(a) the Court of Final Appeal;
(b) the Court of Appeal; or
(c) the Court of First Instance.

121. Commission may participate in proceedings
(1) The Commission may, with the leave of or at the invitation of the specified Court or the Tribunal (as the case requires), participate in proceedings before the specified Court or the Tribunal involving an alleged contravention, or alleged involvement in a contravention, of a conduct rule that have been brought by another person and, in particular may—
(a) make written submissions to the specified Court or the Tribunal; or
(b) apply for, or join an application for, the adjournment of the proceedings pending the completion of the Commission’s investigation into the alleged contravention or involvement that is in issue in the proceedings.
(2) In this section—

specified Court (指明法院) means—
(a) the Court of Final Appeal;
(b) the Court of Appeal; or
(c) the Court of First Instance.

### Competition Ordinance 《競爭條例》

122. Interpretation
In this Part—
employee (僱員) means a person engaged for the provision of services, whether under a contract of employment or otherwise;
specified person (指明人士) means—
(a) the Commission;
(b) any person who is or was a member, employee or agent of the Commission;
(c) any person who is or was a member of a committee of the Commission, established under section 28 of Schedule 5;
(d) the Communications Authority;
(e) any person who is or was a member of the Communications Authority;
(f) any person who is or was a member of a committee of the Communications Authority, appointed under section 17 of the Communications Authority Ordinance (Cap. 616);
(g) any person who is or was a public officer serving in the Office of the Communications Authority;
(h) any person who is or was an employee or agent of the Office of the Communications Authority; or
(i) any person appointed to assist any person referred to in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g) and (h) in the exercise of the powers of the Commission under Part 3.

123. Confidential information
(1) In this Part—
confidential information (機密資料) means—
(a) information that has been provided to or obtained by the Commission in the course of, or in connection with, the performance of its functions under this Ordinance, that relates to—
(i) the private affairs of a natural person;
(ii) the commercial activities of any person that are of a confidential nature; or
(iii) the identity of any person who has given information to the Commission;
(b) information that has been given to the Commission on terms that or in circumstances that require it to be held in confidence; or
(c) information given to the Commission that has been identified as confidential information in accordance with subsection (2).

(2) If a person—
(a) identifies information that the person has given to the Commission as confidential; and
(b) provides a statement in writing setting out the reasons why, in that person’s opinion, the information is confidential,
the information is also to be regarded as confidential information under this Part.

124. Duty to establish and maintain safeguards
(1) The Commission and the Communications Authority must establish and maintain adequate procedural safeguards to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of confidential information.
(2) In this section—
unauthorized disclosure (在未經授權下披露) means disclosure that is either prohibited or not authorized by or under this Ordinance.

### Competition Ordinance 《競爭條例》

125. Preservation of confidentiality
(1) A specified person—
(a) must preserve and aid in preserving the confidentiality of any confidential information;
(b) must not disclose confidential information to any other person; and
(c) must not suffer or permit any other person to have access to confidential information.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to the disclosure of confidential information with lawful authority within the meaning of section 126.
(3) A specified person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable—
(a) on conviction on indictment, to a fine of $1,000,000 and to imprisonment for 2 years; or
(b) on summary conviction, to a fine at level 6 and to imprisonment for 6 months.
(4) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to show that at the time of the alleged offence the defendant—
(a) believed that there was lawful authority for the disclosure of the information concerned and the defendant had no reasonable cause to believe otherwise; or
(b) did not know and had no reasonable cause to believe that the information disclosed was confidential information.