Cartel Enforcement Global review – September 2020 CARTEL ENFORCEMENT GLOBAL REVIEW – SEPTEMBER 2020 Fight against cartels continues to consolidate around the world The period between 2017 and the beginning of 2020 has shown the importance of the prosecution of cartels in the context of global competition law enforcement. Competition authorities are intensifying their initiatives and concluding investigations in strategic sectors such as technology and digital services, construction, transport and mobility services, life sciences, financial services, retail and consumer goods, agriculture, food and energy. In many jurisdictions, fines imposed against participants In the EU, Directive (EU) 2019/1 (ECN+ Directive), in cartels have increased significantly or remained at a aimed at providing competition authorities of high level in the reference period. the Member States with the means to implement competition rules more effectively and to guarantee In 2019, the European Commission imposed cartel the proper functioning of the internal market, should be fines of around EUR1.4 billion. Taking into account fines implemented by Member States by February 2021. of National Competition Authorities, the total fines imposed within the EU (excluding the UK) exceeded The criminal prosecution of cartels continues to be a key EUR4 billion in 2019. factor in many jurisdictions, with particular regard to US, Canada, Australia and Ireland. New Zealand introduced In the US, the amount of fines for cartels, criminal penalties adopting a law that will come into after an important decrease in 2017, rose again force on April 8, 2021. In the UK, the authorities to USD356 million in 2019. continue to seek directors’ disqualification orders in addition to monetary penalties. In other jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada, Brazil and Ukraine, cartel fines have increased The unprecedented challenges relating to the COVID-19 significantly in the last three years. crisis have affected enforcement activities from the first quarter of 2020 and contributed to re-design Some jurisdictions have introduced new pieces of priorities and organizational efforts by Competition legislation to improve the effectiveness of cartel Authorities, which are mostly focusing on matters enforcement and tools available to Competition affecting primary needs. Authorities (including Argentina and Peru in South America; Japan and the Philippines in Asia; Investigations in other key sectors such as digital South Africa). Others are conducting a review process economy, which were becoming more and more critical of several aspects of their current laws (e.g. Russia). before the pandemic outbreak, will have increased visibility in the coming months. 2 DLAPIPER.COM Table of contents GLOBAL CARTEL ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY ................................................................................. 5 2019 global penalties ....................................................................................................................................5 2019 European penalties ..............................................................................................................................6 Penalty trends around the world ................................................................................................................7 Criminal enforcement ....................................................................................................................................9 THE GLOBAL ENFORCEMENT MIX – EMERGING TRENDS ......................................................... 10 Criminal liability ............................................................................................................................................ 10 Cartel investigations, leniency programs and international cooperation ....................................... 11 Compliance programs ................................................................................................................................ 11 COVID-19 related issues ............................................................................................................................ 11 Focus sectors ................................................................................................................................................ 12 COUNTRY SNAPSHOT ....................................................................................................................13 EUROPE ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Austria ........................................................................................................................................................ 14 Belgium...................................................................................................................................................... 15 Denmark .................................................................................................................................................... 16 EU ................................................................................................................................................................ 18 Finland ....................................................................................................................................................... 20 France ........................................................................................................................................................ 21 Germany .................................................................................................................................................... 23 Hungary ..................................................................................................................................................... 25 Ireland ........................................................................................................................................................ 26 Italy ............................................................................................................................................................. 27 Netherlands .............................................................................................................................................. 29 Norway ....................................................................................................................................................... 31 Poland ........................................................................................................................................................ 33 Portugal ..................................................................................................................................................... 35 Romania..................................................................................................................................................... 36 Russia ......................................................................................................................................................... 38 Slovakia ...................................................................................................................................................... 39 Spain ........................................................................................................................................................... 41 3 CARTEL ENFORCEMENT GLOBAL REVIEW – SEPTEMBER 2020 Sweden ...................................................................................................................................................... 43 Ukraine ...................................................................................................................................................... 44 United Kingdom....................................................................................................................................... 46 AMERICAS .................................................................................................................................. 48 Argentina ................................................................................................................................................... 48 Brazil ........................................................................................................................................................... 49 Canada ....................................................................................................................................................... 51 Chile ............................................................................................................................................................ 52 Colombia ................................................................................................................................................... 54 Mexico ........................................................................................................................................................ 55 Peru ............................................................................................................................................................ 56 United States ............................................................................................................................................ 57 ASIA PACIFIC ............................................................................................................................