CARTEL INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
CD: How would you describe the level of cartel-related risk facing companies operating in the global marketplace? To what extent have authorities increased their monitoring efforts in this area?
Mena-Labarthe: Most competition authorities around the world consider the fight against cartels as one of their priorities – often it is the top priority of antitrust agencies. Cartel enforcement has increased dramatically in recent years, including increasing fines and more jurisdictions passing reforms to pursue cartels criminally. In the last few years, many jurisdictions have brought criminal prosecution for the first time, including Australia and Mexico, for example. Another interesting development is the focus of competition authorities on sanctioning not only companies, but the individuals involved in cartel conduct, as well as facilitators of cartels. Canada, Australia, the UK and the US have made this focus on individuals an express priority to advance their deterrence efforts. An interesting consequence has been the increased interest among corporates to have in place effective compliance programmes to avoid cartel conduct.
Jul-Sep 2018 issue
Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Holland & Knight LLP
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
SCWP Schindhelm