Criminalising Cartels

This book is inspired by the international movement towards the criminalisation of cartel conduct over the last decade. Led by US enforcers, criminalisation has been supported by a growing number of regulators and governments. It derives its support from the simple yet forceful proposition that criminal sanctions, particularly jail time, are the most effective deterrent to such activity. However, criminalisation is much more complex than that basic proposition suggests. There is complexity both in terms of the various forces that are driving and shaping the movement (economic, political and social) and in the effects on the various actors involved in it (government, enforcement agencies, the business community, judiciary, legal profession and general public). Featuring contributions from authors who have been at the forefront of the debate around the world, this substantial 19-chapter volume captures the richness of the criminalisation phenomenon and considers its implications for building an effective criminal cartel regime, particularly outside of the US. It adopts a range of approaches, including general theoretical perspectives (from criminal theory, economics, political science, regulation and criminology) and case-studies of the experience with the design and enforcement of existing or contemplated criminal cartel regimes in various jurisdictions (including in Australia, Canada, EU, Germany, Ireland and the UK). The book also explores the international dimensions of criminalisation - its specific practical consequences (such as increased potential for extradition) as well as its more general implications for trends of harmonisation or convergence in competition law and enforcement.

PART A INTRODUCTION
1. Criminalising Cartels: Why Critical Studies?
Caron Beaton-Wells and Ariel Ezrachi
PART B THE US EXPERIENCE WITH CRIMINAL CARTEL ENFORCEMENT
2. Punishment for Cartel Participants in the United States: A Special Model?
Donald I Baker
PART C EXPERIENCES OUTSIDE THE US WITH CRIMINAL CARTEL ENFORCEMENT
3. Redesigning a Criminal Cartel Regime: The Canadian Conversion
D Martin Low and Casey Halladay
4. Competition Offences in Ireland: The Regime and Its Results
Patrick Massey and John D Cooke
5. DOA: Can the UK Cartel Offence Be Resuscitated?
Julian Joshua
6. What if All Bid Riggers Went to Prison and Nobody Noticed? Criminal Antitrust Law Enforcement in Germany
Florian Wagner-von Papp
7. Cartel Criminalisation and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission: Opportunities and Challenges
Caron Beaton-Wells
PART D EU PERSPECTIVES ON CARTEL CRIMINALISATION
8. Criminalising Cartels in the European Union: Is There a Case for Harmonisation?
Ingeborg Simonsson
9. Criminal Cartel Enforcement in the European Union: Avoiding a Human Rights Trade-Off
Peter Whelan
PART E TESTING ORTHODOX ASSUMPTIONS UNDERPINNING CARTEL CRIMINALISATION
10. Criminal Cartel Sanctions and Compliance: The Gap between Rhetoric and Reality
Christine Parker
11. Am I a Price Fixer? A Behavioural Economics Analysis of Cartels
Maurice E Stucke
12. Cartels in the Criminal Law Landscape
Rebecca Williams
13. Cartel Offences and Non-Monetary Punishment: The Punitive Injunction as a Sanction against Corporations
Brent Fisse
PART F EXPLORING THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CARTEL CRIMINALISATION
14. Cartel Criminalisation as Juridification: Political and Regulatory Dangers
Stephen Wilks
15. The Anti-Cartel Enforcement Industry: Criminological Perspectives on Cartel Criminalisation
Christopher Harding
16. 'The Battle for Hearts and Minds': The Role of the Media in Treating Cartels as Criminal
Andreas Stephan
PART G FUTURE CHALLENGES FACING CARTEL CRIMINALISATION ON AN INTERNATIONAL SCALE
17. International Cartels, Concurrent Criminal Prosecutions and Extradition: Law, Practice and Policy
Michael O'Kane
18. Cartels as Criminal? The Long Road from Unilateral Enforcement to International Consensus
Ariel Ezrachi and Jiøí Kindl

“If one mark of a good book, in this case an edited collection, is how often it, or the essays in it, have been cited since publication, then this is a very good book indeed. In the course of examining aspects of the United Kingdom's discredited Cartel Offence over the last year I have consistently encountered references to work contained here, and have myself relied on a number of contributions.

The editors have taken care with the structure and have selected an exceptionally good team of contributors...It makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the subject, and is highly recommended.

” –  Mark Furse, Global Competition Litigation Review, Issue 5

“...a subtle but devastating critique of the criminalization of cartels.” –  Imelda Maher, Law and Social Inquiry

“[A]n exceptionally good team of contributors. It is an unusual collection in that the sum of the whole is greater than that of the parts. It makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the subject, and is highly recommended.” –  Mark Furse, European Competition Law Review, 2012, 33(5)

“...cover to cover, this is the best contemporary book on cartels.” –  Daniel Sokol, Antitrust&Competition Policy Blog, 24/05/11