Cartel Nook | July 2023
Within the first half of 2023, antitrust enforcers remained remarkably busy each in the USA (US) and throughout the European Union (EU). The US Division of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Antitrust Division (Division) and the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) have continued their aggressive and novel effort to tug antitrust enforcement into the labor markets. The DOJ Procurement Collusion Strike Drive (PCSF) has pursued its crackdown on antitrust and fraud involving authorities procurement with a variety of current circumstances. And DOJ has pushed the boundaries beneath Part 2 of the Sherman Act—each by revitalizing the legal provisions of the legislation and by pursuing “makes an attempt” to monopolize criminally. The European Union has additionally stored the stress on these doing enterprise abroad, imposing vital fines in current issues and upgrading its on-line leniency program to make it simpler for corporations to report wrongdoing.
On this installment of Cartel Nook, we study this continued aggressiveness towards antitrust enforcement. Whereas these authorities enforcement efforts haven’t all the time been profitable, they’ve nonetheless reframed the panorama for a lot of corporations and people. What was as soon as considered a civil antitrust violation at worst—or no violation in any respect—is now typically pursued criminally. And antitrust enforcers are talking in additional strident tones as they try and remake, in sure methods, the best way corporations do enterprise in the USA and overseas.
Whether or not antitrust enforcers are finally profitable stays to be seen. Nonetheless, the pattern is actual, and it’s one that each one corporations needs to be ready to deal with within the weeks and months to come back.
