Conducting Competition Law Training In-house

Abstract

All businesses are required to act in compliance with the competition laws of the jurisdictions in which they trade. Developing and running compliance programs for in-house staff has become a skill required by all in-house counsel. With the increased proliferation of Antitrust / Competition laws around the world, and the increasing penalties for both corporations and individuals, the need for in-house counsel to develop competition law compliance training applicable to their respective businesses has become essential. Colleagues will recall that it was not so long ago that Microsoft's fines (initially around US$600 million) were increased by the EU for continued failure to honour the 2004 antitrust ruling against it bringing the total of fines against Microsoft to just under US$2.6 billion. In addition, the European Union Commission's recent guidelines for calculation of fines for cartels and a 100% increase in fines for repeated offenders very much reflects the writing on the wall for future offences in these jurisdictions. New jurisdictions will probably not hesitate to follow in due course.