Global Legal Insights

We are delighted to present the 12th edition
of Global Legal Insights - Cartels.
This edition covers the most significant developments in 19
jurisdictions around the world and, as before, is designed to provide in-house
counsel, government agencies and private practice lawyers with a practical
insight into cartel enforcement policy and procedure, including
leniency/amnesty regimes, administrative settlement, sanctions and appeals.



The aim of this edition, as with other volumes in the Global
Legal Insights series, is to collect the views and opinions of a group of
leading competition law practitioners from around the world in a single
volume. Authors continue to be
encouraged to focus their chapter on what they consider to be the most
important practice points and recent developments in their jurisdictions, with
a free rein to determine the content of their chapter. By giving the authors the opportunity both to
select the legal and policy issues that they wish to discuss, and to offer
insights into the practical operation of their national regimes, this book aims
to look beyond the anti-cartel provisions and enforcement procedures that apply
in the various jurisdictions. It also
facilitates an up-to-date comparative analysis of the approaches currently
being taken by competition agencies around the world to some of the difficult
issues that can arise in practice.



This year has seen a continued trend towards renewed
enforcement activities by regulators in several jurisdictions, with the number
of dawn raids in 2023 staying broadly consistent with 2022 figures. Notably, regulators in the EU, UK, USA and Turkey
carried out coordinated dawn raids in the construction chemicals sector in
October 2023, which was the second set of coordinated dawn raids in 2023. Much of the activity seems sector agnostic but
there are common underlying issues; for example, alleged agreements by smaller
companies in response to the perceived unfair practices of digital platforms,
and agreements to limit the allegedly excessive costs of complying with
regulatory obligations, including those imposed by environmental laws. Despite continued enforcement activity, the
total level of fines imposed globally was significantly lower than previous
years, with the lowest cartel fines imposed by the European Commission in 20
years.



We thank the many
authors for their considerable efforts in providing what we hope is a more
in-depth look at the global cartels landscape, which we hope will prove to be
helpful when considering enforcement initiatives and developments in your own
jurisdiction.






Euan Burrows & Denis Fosselard



Ashurst LLP