European Competition Law Annual 2008

This is the thirteenth in a series on EU Competition Law and Policy produced under the auspices of the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. The volume contains the written contributions of numerous competition policy experts, together with the transcripts of a roundtable debate which examined the subject of "settlements" between enforcers of competition law and defendant companies in cartel cases and in other types of antitrust cases. The Workshop participants included:

-- senior judges from major jurisdictions (the European Union, Germany and the United States);

-- senior enforcement officials and policy makers from the European Commission, from the national competition authorities of certain EU Member States and from the US Department of Justice and the US Federal Trade Commission; and

-- renowned international international academics, legal practitioners and professional economists.

In an intense, intimate environment, this group of experts debated a number of legal and economic issues pertaining to two broad lines of discussion:

1) settlements and plea agreements in cartel cases, including their links with leniency programs and with private enforcement; and

2) settlements in "commitment" cases decided under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 and under comparable procedures of national law.