10 - Compliance Policies and Sanctions

Summary

Péter Sükösd summarizes the main drivers for creating competition law compliance programs by detailing the criteria for an effective program. He first analyzes the US approach to general compliance and competition law compliance programs, then the European Commission’s and EU member states’ and the UK's. Competition authorities in the US, EU and UK acknowledge the positive effects of competition law compliance programs,but there is a group of countries that believes that these programs mainly serve the interest of companies, by anticipating and preventing potential infringements, and thus mitigating fine risks, and that therefore there should be no further rewarding action from the state’s side. Some competition authorities, including the European Commission, go even further: they claim that the existence of competition law infringement is a clear sign of the failure of such programs, hence they should never be rewarded. Due to different compliance cultures, the author does not see the chance for a uniform approach to rewarding competition law compliance programs. This might be why the topic of competition law compliance programs is missing from the ECN+ Directive that provides for minimum guarantees and standards to empower national competition authorities to reach their full potential.