The sight of dozens of law enforcement agents raiding the offices of a prominent corporation would raise eyebrows in the United States. The Fourth Amendment, case law and perhaps even old-fashioned civility ensure that such searches are rare. Not so in virtually every other business region in the world. Within the European Union (EU), Asia, Latin America, and even Africa, so-called “dawn raids” of corporate offices have become a staple of international enforcement.
Restrictions on overseas dawn raids historically have ranged from lax to nonexistent. Although most foreign jurisdictions have begun to impose limits and oversight on these raids, the raids remain aggressive by U.S. standards. They are also increasing in frequency and not confined to any particular types of industries. Even the largest, most respected corporations such as Amazon, Google and McDonald’s have all recently had overseas offices raided. There is a diminishing stigma to being the subject of a dawn raid and no reason not to prepare for it.
