This paper aims at providing guidance on the benefits and challenges of criminal enforcement while exploring the economic deterrence theory and the retribution theory that have emerged in the criminalisation debate. It also offers an overview of criminalisation trends across jurisdictions, identifying the key institutional and procedural questions to be carefully assessed when a jurisdiction considers the criminalisation of cartels. It was prepared as a background note for a discussion held at the OECD in June 2020 on the criminalisation of cartels and bid rigging conspiracies.