Module Information

This module will build upon the study of cartel regulation more generally by examining critically and in further detail the strategies of legal control and enforcement which have been adopted by regulatory agencies in Europe and elsewhere. The underlying problem of discovering and proving highly anti-competitive but secretive business activities will be considered with reference to a number of key enforcement strategies: methods of investigation; the construction of offence definition to aid the establishment of violations; the development of leniency programmes to encourage the provision of evidence; the use of criminalization and the development of further deterrent sanctions. The legal control and review of these enforcement strategies will also be considered, with particular reference to the role of the European Court of Justice and Court of First Instance in dealing with appeals by cartel participants.

1. Challenges to effective cartel regulation: problems of evidence in relation to furtive business activities.
2. The legal character of anti-cartel investigations and sanctions, standards of proof, and the process of judicial review.
3. The economic context: the use of economic argument and market analysis in relation to evidential issues.
4. `Offence? definition as a means of proving the case: the concept of the `cartel as a whole?.
5. Methods of investigation, with particular reference to the use of `dawn raids?.
6. The use of deterrent sanctions: the nature, level and impact of fines.
7. The operation of leniency programmes.
8. The criminalization of cartels.
9. Appeals against cartel decisions.