Concurrences

Section 1 Sherman Act: Compliance from an economic perspective

Mr. Marshall and Mrs. Marx’ initiative consists of an article on "Section 1 Sherman Act: Compliance from an economic perspective": "From our perspective if the goal of antitrust compliance training is to try to convince product division managers that explicit collusion is not an activity that they should consider, there is a huge gap in the training. The training treats explicit collusion in the same way that one would treat an illegal unilateral activity by a division manager—you would inform decision-makers that the activity is illegal, there are substantial penalties, some people who discover the activity may receive a reward for reporting the activity, and the boundaries of what is illegal and what is not illegal would be explored with hypotheticals."

Testimonials

Roberto Rustichelli
Italian Competition Authority (Rome)

Italy 1 contribution 1 visit

I am very delighted to be part of the Antitrust Compliance Summit & Awards Steering Committee together with other distinguished members.

The Italian Competition Authority strongly supports this much-needed initiative of Concurrences which contributes to promote and strengthen a competition culture at global level and I hope its innovative format will attract as many participant agencies as possible in sharing their experiences in evaluating compliance programmes for the purpose of potential fine reductions for businesses.

Since the adoption of our own guidelines in 2018, antitrust programmes in Italy have become an increasingly important component of businesses’ general compliance programmes. Our practice has shown that designing and implementing antitrust programmes is not a “box-checking exercise” and there is no “one size fits all” type of programme.

I believe this initiative, by exchanging best practices for successful antitrust compliance, will surely be of interest for our agency as well as many other competition agencies around the world.
Dirk Middelschulte
Unilever (Brussels)

Belgium 7 contributions 9287 visits

From being a fringe activity for the legal profession, competition law compliance has become a key pillar of good corporate citizenship over the last 15 years or so. So much legal expertise, business insight and creativity goes into ever-more sophisticated and bespoke compliance programs. It is about time to recognize outstanding accomplishments in this important field, and I am very pleased that Concurrences has given me a chance to support their initiative.
Martin d’Halluin
News Corp (New York)

United States 11 contributions 14883 visits

In its 2019 guidance, the U.S. Department of Justice emphasized that robust compliance programs need to be forward-thinking: "effective antitrust compliance programs not only prevent, detect, and address antitrust violations, they also further remedial efforts and help foster corporate and individual accountability". Concurrences’ idea to reward innovative compliance initiatives globally is also forward-thinking and should be applauded. I am delighted to be part of the Steering Committee and look forward to seeing a lot of creative programs.
Daniel Sokol
USC Gould School of Law (Los Angeles)

United States 10 contributions 3801 visits

Compliance plays an integral role in antitrust/competition law and this initiative recognizes its growing centrality.
Marie-Pascale Heusse
BNP Paribas (Paris)

France 6 contributions 9033 visits

Compliance, as well as time to market, constitutes a major strategic challenge for economic players but also for authorities and institutions. What is the rule without the knowledge of this rule, the understanding of issues and risks at stake ? This is most apt when it comes to behavioral rules. Competition law is now part of companies’ codes of conduct which imply for staffs to act in a responsible and ethical manner. Being aware of competition law rules is therefore much more than a legal requirement. It is part of the corporate culture.

Today Competition Law Compliance Programmes are widespread. However, from the perspective of Heads of competition law / Compliance officers in charge, maintaining such programmes as top priorities is not a walk in the park. To the contrary, it is a real challenge to always keep them up especially when they are themselves in competition with many compliance requirements imposed by legislations, e.g. anti bribery, money laundering.

Concurrences identified this issue and started months ago to propose dedicated events. The Awards Compliance Initiative, that I’d like to commend, will be the high point of exchanges started in February 2019 at Concurrences’ initiative but also, and it has to be stressed, in the framework of a dedicated working group set-up by the French Competition Authority in 2020. More broadly, it will gather international actors, authorities and institutions and allow them to share their views and more practically, their best recipes and tools.

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Testimonials