Competition law offenders are often subject to fines (civil, administrative or criminal). Fines impose a cost on those companies or individuals undertaking illegal anticompetitive conduct. Breaking competition laws is profitable if it goes undetected. Fines play a role in deterrence by making unlawful conduct less profitable.
From the perspective of the company, it will not violate the law if the expected monetary sanctions are greater than the expected illegal gain. It may have a financial incentive to violate the law if the expected illegal gain is greater than the expected monetary sanctions. Behind this trend, a number of competition authorities have put forth a great deal of effort to adopt or revise their legislation or guidelines on fines.
In December 2016, this OECD addressed how sanctions including fines are applied in various jurisdictions and benefited from participating delegations' enforcement experiences.
This page contains all related materials.
