When Bad Things Happen in Good Business: The Need for Compliance Focused Antitrust Enforcement

Despite competition law having little regard for the internal circumstances that give rise to anti-competitive behaviour, businesses continue to invest heavily in antitrust compliance programmes. These can significantly reduce antitrust risk but will not eliminate it completely. This chapter first explains why infringements of competition law occur despite good compliance. There are inherent challenges in training, monitoring and disciplining staff, and there is still considerable uncertainty as to how competition rules will apply – especially in relation to novel situations or effects-based rules. The chapter concludes there is a need for a compliance focused approach to antitrust enforcement in the EU and elsewhere – one that has regard for whether a business has reasonable compliance measures in place and whether there is genuine uncertainty as to how the law applies.