Criminalising Cartels Critical Studies of an International Regulatory Movement

by Beaton-Wells, Caron; Ezrachi, Ariel

• ISBN13: 9781849460255
• ISBN10: 1849460256
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-02-10
• Publisher: Hart Publishing

Summary

This book is inspired by the international movement towards the criminalisation of cartel conduct over the last decade. Led by US enforcers, criminalisation has been supported by a growing number of regulators and governments. It derives its support from the simple yet persuasive proposition that criminal sanctions, particularly jail time, are the most effective deterrent to such activity. However, criminalisation is much more complex than that basic proposition suggests. There is complexity both in terms of the various forces that are driving and shaping the movement (economic, political and social) and in the effects on the various actors involved in it (government, enforcement agencies, the business community, legal profession, and general public). Featuring contributions from authors who have been at the forefront of the debate around the world, this substantial 17 chapter volume captures the complexity of the criminalisation phenomenon and considers its implications for building an effective criminal cartel regime, particularly outside of the USA. It adopts a range of approaches, including general theoretical perspectives (from criminal theory, economics, political science, regulation and criminology) and case-studies of the recent practical experience with the design and enforcement of a criminal cartel regime in various jurisdictions (including in the UK, Australia, Germany, Ireland and Canada). It also explores the international dimensions of criminalisation - its specific practical consequences (such as increased potential for extradition) as well as its more general implications for trends of harmonisation or convergence in competition law and enforcement.

Author Biography

Caron Beaton-Wells is an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, Director of Studies for Competition Law at the Melbourne Law School and Director of the University of Melbourne Competition Law & Economics Network.Ariel Ezrachi is the Slaughter and May lecturer in Competition Law at the University of Oxford and the Director of the Oxford Centre for Competition Law and Policy. He is a Fellow and Tutor in Law at Pembroke College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. v
Preface	p. ix
List of Contributors	p. xiii
List of Abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Criminalising Cartels: Why Critical Studies?	p. 3
The US Experience with Criminal Cartel Enforcement	p. 25
Punishment for Cartel Participants in the US: A Special Model?	p. 27
Criminal Enforcement Norms in Competition Policy: Insights from US Experience	p. 45
Experiences Outside the US with Criminal Cartel Enforcement	p. 75
Redesigning a Criminal Cartel Regime: The Canadian Conversion	p. 77
Competition Offences in Ireland: The Regime and its Results	p. 105
DOA: Can the UK Cartel Offence be Resuscitated?	p. 129
What if all Bid Riggers Went to Prison and Nobody Noticed? Criminal Antitrust Law Enforcement in Germany	p. 157
Cartel Criminalisation and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission: Opportunities and Challenges	p. 183
EU Perspectives on Cartel Criminalisation	p. 201
Criminalising Cartels in the EU: Is There a Case for Harmonisation?	p. 203
Criminal Cartel Enforcement in the EU: Avoiding a Human Rights Trade-Off	p. 217
Testing Orthodox Assumptions Underpinning Cartel Criminalisation	p. 237
Criminal Cartel Sanctions and Compliance: The Gap between Rhetoric and Reality	p. 239
Am I a Price Fixer? A Behavioural Economics Analysis of Cartels	p. 263
Cartels in the Criminal Law Landscape	p. 289
Cartel Offences and Non-Monetary Punishment: The Punitive Injunction as a Sanction against Corporations	p. 313
Exploring the Political Economy of Cartel Criminalisation	p. 339
Cartel Criminalisation as Juridification: Political and Regulatory Dangers	p. 341
The Anti-Cartel Enforcement Industry: Criminological Perspectives on Cartel Criminalisation	p. 359
'The Battle for Hearts and Minds': The Role of the Media in Treating Cartels as Criminal	p. 381
Future Challenges Facing Cartel Criminalisation on an International Scale	p. 395
International Cartels, Concurrent Criminal Prosecutions and Extradition: Law, Practice and Policy	p. 397
Cartels as Criminal? The Long Road from Unilateral Enforcement to International Consensus	p. 419
Index	p. 435
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