Business roundtable on a Cash Cow called EU Competition Law
Fines from oversight authorities continue to skyrock. From 1995 to 1999, cartel fines totaled 292 million euro ($400 million); in the next five years to 2004; they jumped to 3.5 billion euro ($4.8 billion), in the next five years ending in 2009, they tripled over those previous five years to 9.4 billion euro ($12.9 billion) and the estimates until end 2014 could be well above the 10,0 billion euro mark. ($13.7 billion) These fines imposed are not adjusted for Court judgments.
Copenhagen Compliance will conduct a roundtable on the 3rd June at 08,30 AM to promote greater emphasis on the strength of the company's ethics and compliance program to reduce the size of possible cartel fines. The roundtable will place further emphasis on the quality of the compliance program as a way to encourage good corporate behavior throughout the organization.
Other issues that will be discussed during the roundtable are:
- Increased insistence on transparency
- Efforts to streamline enforcement procedures
- Increased emphasis on the right of defense and due process;
- Mechanisms to improve the efficient operation of leniency applications
- Since fines are proportionate to the breach being punished, how can general GRC components like transparency, accountability, stewardship, approvals help?
- Define the specific criteria under which parent companies are liable for cartel-like behavior by their subsidiaries.
- Basic principles of avoiding engagement in anti-competitive behavior
In short an effective deterrent is to encourage the implementation of adequate Good Governance, Risk Management and Compliance.
The European Commission enforces EU competition law under two provisions. Article 101 of the EU Treaty bans collusion among companies to fix prices or allocate markets and its enforcement has resulted in the massive anti-cartel fines referenced above. Article 102, which bans an abuse of a dominant market position, formed the basis for the huge fines levied against Microsoft and Intel.
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution concerning the European Commission's 2008 Report on Competition Policy, where it reaffirmed the Commission's rigorous competition law enforcement, highlighted by the following statement
- Cartels are among the most serious violations of competition law,
- Cartels disrupt the value chain, and are detrimental to consumers and have a very negative impact on the economy.
Therefore the roundtable will focus on how companies can develop more sophisticated instruments to ensure compliance with competition law.
See: http://www.copenhagencompliance.com/AntitrustRoundtable.html
