Competition Law Compliance in a Socially Distanced World
Abstract
As a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, working life has changed for millions of people. The need to keep a distance from others in order to try to limit the spread of infection has meant that working from home, limiting travel and face-to-face meetings, and no longer attending conferences and trade fairs have become part of what many refer to as the “new normal”. At the same time, companies emerging from the Pandemic may need to engage in legitimate cooperation with competitors in order to contribute to sustainability goals, and in-house counsel will need to support their businesses in this regard. The combination of new ways of working and a likely increase in legitimate contact between competitors creates a challenge for the compliance function. The article concludes that compliance programmes will need to adapt to the changes in working life which the Pandemic has brought, while being agile enough to support companies that do wish to engage in legitimate cooperation in order to contribute to sustainability goals.