Winston & Strawn
- Competition Corner: https://www.winston.com/en/competition-corner/index.html
- Elements of Effective Antitrust Compliance Programs Checklist
Winston & Strawn’s initiative consists of a checklist for companies to consider when designing and implementing an antitrust compliance program. This checklist is based on guidance published by the U.S. Department of Justice for evaluating the effectiveness of compliance programs in criminal antitrust investigations. This article is published in Winston & Strawn’s Competition Corner which features insights on recent legal developments in the antitrust arena as well as user-friendly guidance and practical tips for compliance.
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore is honoured to be part of the Antitrust Compliance Summit & Awards Steering Committee. We hope that the awards will spur competition authorities to further raise awareness of competition law through greater recognition of their work.
I congratulate Concurrences on their timely initiative of the Antitrust Compliance Summit & Awards. To highlight the importance of antitrust compliance at this moment is very welcome as we know that firms and managers are particularly tempted to engage in anticompetitive and collusive practices in times of crises.
You have probably heard that it is much better to be safe than sorry. This maxim, applicable to so many situations, can also be used when we discuss corruption, since the act of anticipating situations prevents they spread through public or private companies. Corruption, besides compromising the money of entities, whether public or private, also puts their reputation at stake. On the other hand, compliance programs may establish an organizational culture that encourages ethical conduct and a commitment to comply with the organization’s internal and external standards. In this way, they promote the fight against corruption and reduce the number of lawsuits and administrative proceedings, as well as the chances of financial losses. Experience shows that an effective compliance program can bring about great results. By adopting such programs, we ensure the maintenance of competition in the market and prevent the emergence of violations and harm caused by the lack of competition. Moreover, if we keep a company from losing value, it certainly creates benefits to the entire supply chain, that is, the company itself, investors, consumers, trading partners, and even authorities, as prevention is always preferable to repression, incurring lower costs to society. In view of this, it is important to recognize initiatives that aim to foster and encourage companies to have robust compliance programs that are capable of mapping risks and minimizing the practice of illegal acts, whether these are related to competition law or other matters.
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.
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.
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