Meeting the Challenges of European Union Anti-trust Compliance with Technical Innovation

Abstract

To paraphrase an old adage – “God could not be everywhere all the time, that’s why he invented regulators”! However, as most legislators and regulation draftsmen would have it, their aim is to guide more socially and economically responsible behaviour, rather than to find another excuse for increased enforcement extending from straightforward fines to more draconian powers of Senior Director imprisonment, as evidenced by the UK’s July 2011 Bribery Act. In a speech on 11th October 2011, the European Commission Director General of DG Competition, Alexander Italianer, stressed zero tolerance for international cartels. In so doing, he recognised the need for more effective detection tools as it uses forensic IT searches more frequently. However, while the powers given to the EU Commission, as well as national regulators - such as the UK Office of Fair Trading - are increasing, so too are the instances of leniency for proactivity.