The Evolution of Criminal Antitrust Enforcement Over the Last Two Decades

February 25, 2010 - Over the last two decades the cartel enforcement landscape has dramatically changed in the United States and around the globe. In the early 1990's, the sanctions imposed in criminal cartel cases brought by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice were not sufficiently severe and our original Corporate Leniency Program was simply not producing cases. In the last two decades, the world has seen the proliferation of effective leniency programs, ever-increasing sanctions for cartel offenses, a growing global movement to hold individuals criminally accountable, and increased international cooperation among enforcers in cartel investigations.

The Antitrust Division has spent the last two decades building and implementing a "carrot and stick" enforcement strategy by coupling rewards for voluntary disclosure and timely cooperation pursuant to the Antitrust Division's Corporate Leniency Program with severe sanctions. In addition, the Antitrust Division utilizes all available investigatory tools to create a significant risk and fear of detection and prosecution for violators of U.S. antitrust laws. The seeds of this "carrot and stick" enforcement strategy were planted by the Antitrust Division in the mid-1990s and began to bear fruit over the next decade. Since the mid-1990, the Antitrust Division has uncovered and prosecuted dozens of international cartels, secured convictions and jail sentences against culpable U.S. and foreign executives, and obtained hefty corporate fines. In recent years, competition enforcers around the world have intensified their cartel enforcement efforts and achieved similar results.

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http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/speeches/255515.htm