In a short span of years, the landscape of global competition has changed significantly. In particular, international cooperation in competition law enforcement has greatly strengthened the battle against abuse of dominance, cartels, anticompetitive mergers and related political corruption. This thoroughly researched book explains the current situation regarding joint investigations, identifies common problems and considers possible solutions and future developments. In addition to covering issues of competition policy, its authors look in detail at practice in both merger and conduct investigations in a variety of countries.
Cartel issues arise in a variety of settings and industries and increasingly without regard to jurisdictional boundaries. Many jurisdictions have granted their competition authorities broad jurisdictional reach and provided them with aggressive investigative tools, such as wiretap authority and compulsory process. There is also a burgeoning movement to criminalize cartel activity in places where it has previously been regarded as wholly or principally a civil or administrative matter. And the global proliferation of leniency programs continues to radically destabilize cartels, creating powerful incentives for institutions to turn against their co-conspirators.This first edition of the International Antitrust Cartel Handbook is a vital reference for both new and experienced antitrust practitioners navigating the increasingly complex global cartel enforcement environment. It brings together leading cartel practitioners from around the world to address the critical issues that arise throughout the lifecycle of a cartel investigation and prosecution. The Handbook provides both breadth of coverage and analytical depth suitable for a wide range of practitioners, including everyone from those who may find themselves on the front line of a government inquiry or internal investigation; to those awaiting their day in court to contest a criminal indictment; to those simply preparing to counsel a client on the basic "dos and don'ts" of engaging with competitors.
In this monograph, Aistė Mickonytė examines the compliance of the European anti-cartel enforcement procedure with the presumption of innocence under Article 6(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The author maintains that the pursuit of manifestly severe punishment with insistence of the European Commission on administrative-level procedural safeguards is inconsistent with the robust standards of protection under the Convention. Arguing that EU anti-cartel procedure is criminal within the meaning of the Convention, this work considers this procedure in light of the core elements of the presumption of innocence such as the burden of proof and the principle of fault. The author zeroes in on the de facto automatic liability of parental companies for offences committed by their subsidiaries.
This book is the first detailed treatment of the approaches taken to enforce competition laws against cross-border cartels (CBCs) from the perspective of young and small competition authorities (more than 70% of the total number of authorities worldwide). No other legal or inter-disciplinary scholarship exists in the market that deals with the issue of a taxonomy of CBCs combined with young/small competition authorities' problems. The book looks at the extent of the harms caused by CBCs and issues associated with tackling them at a transnational level. It explains why past solutions to problems with cooperation have failed and proposes novel ideas on how to improve cooperation and coordination in certain types of CBC investigations (transnational and regional CBCs). The proposals are based on primary-source information and observations made by the author as part of his work in the UN, and interviews with leading enforcers from young, small, old and large jurisdictions. Young/small competition authorities, competition lawyers and economists, scholars and students within the fields of competition law and international law, and those interested in international cooperation and coordination in the area of cartel enforcement in emerging markets will greatly benefit from this book. It is clearly structured and extensively referenced, providing a valuable guide to the topic.
This contributed volume focuses on competition policy enforcement in BRICS and developing counties. It examines the role and application of economic analysis and evidence in law enforcement procedures, as well as their influence on competition authorities’ policy-making. The contributors also address topics such as recent developments in competition law and practice, institutional design, indicators of performance in enforcement, the incorporation of public interest concerns in Competition Authority objectives, procedural fairness, procurement procedures and compulsory licensing.
This book is inspired by the international movement towards the criminalisation of cartel conduct over the last decade. Led by US enforcers, criminalisation has been supported by a growing number of regulators and governments. It derives its support from the simple yet forceful proposition that criminal sanctions, particularly jail time, are the most effective deterrent to such activity. However, criminalisation is much more complex than that basic proposition suggests. There is complexity both in terms of the various forces that are driving and shaping the movement (economic, political and social) and in the effects on the various actors involved in it (government, enforcement agencies, the business community, judiciary, legal profession and general public). Featuring contributions from authors who have been at the forefront of the debate around the world, this substantial 19-chapter volume captures the richness of the criminalisation phenomenon and considers its implications for building an effective criminal cartel regime, particularly outside of the US. It adopts a range of approaches, including general theoretical perspectives (from criminal theory, economics, political science, regulation and criminology) and case-studies of the experience with the design and enforcement of existing or contemplated criminal cartel regimes in various jurisdictions (including in Australia, Canada, EU, Germany, Ireland and the UK). The book also explores the international dimensions of criminalisation - its specific practical consequences (such as increased potential for extradition) as well as its more general implications for trends of harmonisation or convergence in competition law and enforcement.
Enforcement against international cartels surged in the late 1990s. Despite this enforcement activity, there are good reasons to doubt that national laws sufficiently deter cartel formation.
This timely book brings together contributions from prominent scholars and practitioners to the ongoing debate on the criminalization of competition law enforcement. Recognizing that existing remedies and sanctions may be insufficient to deter breaches of competition law, several EU Member States have followed the US example and introduced pecuniary penalties for executives, professional disqualification orders, and even jail sentences. Addressing issues such as unsolved legal puzzles, standard of proof, leniency programs and internal cartel stability, this book is a marker for future policy debate. With perspectives from an international cast of contributors, Criminalization of Competition Law Enforcement will be of great interest to academics and policy makers as well as students and practitioners in law.
One of the most contentious and high-profile aspects of EU competition law and policy has been the regulation of those serious competition or antitrust violations now often referred to as 'hard core cartels'. Such cartel activity typically involves large and powerful corporate producers and traders operating across Europe and beyond, and comprise practices such as price fixing, bid rigging, market sharing, and limiting production in order to ensure 'market stability' and maintain and increase profits. There is little disagreement now, in terms of competition theory and policy at both international and national levels, regarding the damaging effect of such trading practices on public and consumer interests, and such cartels have been subject to increasing condemnation in the legal process of regulating and protecting competition. Regulating Cartels in Europe provides critical evaluation of the way in which European-level regulation has evolved to deal with the activities of such anti-competitive business cartels. They trace the historical development of cartel regulation in Europe, comparing the more pragmatic and empirical approached favored in Europe with the more dogmatic and uncompromising American policy on cartels. In particular, the work considers critically the move towards the use of fully fledged criminal proceedings in this area of legal control, examining evolving aspects of enforcement policy such as the use of leniency programs and the deployment of a range of criminal law and other sanctions. This new edition of the work covers emerging themes and arguments in the discipline, including the judicial review of decisions against cartels, the criminological and legal basis of the criminalization of cartel conduct, and the range and effectiveness of sanctions used in response to cartel activity.
