Criminal cartels

• Author: Ana Maria Iulia Santa
• Position: Faculty of Law, University of Vienna, Austria
• Pages: 260-267

Criminal cartels

Student Ana-Maria Iulia ŞANTA

1

Abstract

Cartels are nowadays a global issue, affecting consumers from all over the world.

As the consequences of anticompetitive agreements have an impact at extraterritorial level,

with implications beyond th e market where the cartel operates, cartel investig ations have a

global dimension. Cartel members, which are global players, should be aware of th is

aspect, as in some jurisdictions, for example in the United S tates of America, cartel

agreements are a criminal offence, as they harm the consumer. The present paper will

analyze the approach to cartels in the United States of America and in the European Union,

it will deal with the research question if cartels are seen as criminal in several jurisdictions

and it will point out aspects of international cooperation in fighting aga inst cartels, in

order to ensure consumer protection. The research questions will be illustrated by case-law

and case-studies that will serve as examples. The present paper will use an

interdisciplinary comparative research approach, with focus on an international

perspective related to cartel enforcement at a global level.

Keywords: cartel, cartel enforcement, criminal cartels, consumer protection , global cartel

investigations.

JEL Classification: K21, K22, K33, K14

1. Introduction

Cartels are nowadays a global issue in our business environment, where the

main actors are multinational companies. Multinational companies concentrate a

huge amount of power and of influence on the market. They build a typical

oligopolistic structure, where few market participants hold significant market

shares

2

. Given this structure of the market, the tendency of the global players on

the market is to collude, to agree upon prices, terms and conditions or markets and

thus to avoid real competition. Given this international context, the research topic

of the present paper is to find out if cartels are seen as a criminal offence in several

jurisdictions around the world, mainly in the United States of America and within

the European Union and to compare these approaches related to cartel agreements.

The new perspective compared to the existing literature is given by the

new and dynamic development of competition law in the European Union, by the

1

Ana-Maria Iulia Şanta - Faculty of Law, University of Vienna, Austria, anamaria_iulia_santa@

yahoo.com.

2

See O’Kane, Michael: The Law of Criminal Cartels, Oxford University P ress Inc., New York, 2009,

p. 2; Bishop, S imon and Walker, Mike: The Economics of EC Competition Law: Concepts,

Application and Measurement, Sweet & Maxwell, London, 2010, p. 14.