The CADE’s initiative consists of its Guidelines on the structuring and benefits of adopting competition compliance programs issued in January 2016. The purpose of these Guidelines is to establish non-binding directives for companies and other private entities regarding competition programs, such as what they consist of, how they can be implemented and what the benefits of their adoption are.
I believe the Antitrust Compliance Summit & Awards is an excellent opportunity to discuss about compliance programs (specifics, criteria, success and failure stories) and to acknowledge the role they may undertake on wide spreading a true culture of competition on stakeholders and society as a whole. This event, structured in panel discussions and formal awards recognitions, will allow us all to share thorough assessment of effectiveness of compliance programs thus far. I am very much looking forward to participate in this program and to my role as member of the Enforcer Steering Committee.
Antitrust compliance initiative proposed by this award summit is a creative mind rarely found in the traditional legal sector. The ideas to be innovative in antitrust compliance are proposed to better chart the evolution of the legal profession and will be presented in a way that is more useful, user-friendly and amusing for the audience of the antitrust compliance trainings.
A larger context of this initiative and the reason why I am interested in joining this event - in view of the ever-increasing deterrent effects of the penalties imposed on antitrust violations worldwide, the importance of an ex-ante mechanism of an antitrust compliance also rises accordingly to avoid any ‘ex post’ antitrust risks. Antitrust compliance has become a routine task for companies, law firms, enforcers and even academics to follow and work on in their daily life.
Compliance plays an integral role in antitrust/competition law and this initiative recognizes its growing centrality.
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.
We are firm believers that proactive competition law compliance by businesses of all sizes is an important factor in well-functioning markets. Accordingly, we welcome this effort to increase awareness of compliance best practices and to demonstrate through dialogue and recognition that a strong culture of compliance, supported by effective policies and procedures, makes good business sense.
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