Findings

One part of our survey was conducted in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 2014. It contains responses from about 90 large companies. They provided answers to our questions on the design and effectiveness of the measures implemented to ensure compliance with antitrust laws.

More than 80% of these companies reported that imperfect knowledge of their employees about antitrust laws constitutes a risk for violations of these laws. This also includes imperfect knowledge about the consequences of such violations (e.g., fines and damages). However, less than 40% of the respondents considered changes in the economic environment of a firm (e.g., a decline in demand or increased competition from imports) a risk factor that facilitates antitrust violations. This is surprising because – in the past – reductions of profits that were caused by changes in the economic environment could frequently be observed constituting triggers for collusive conduct.

Following this risk assessment, 90% of the participating firms engage in compliance training to educate their employees about antitrust laws. More than 80% provide guidelines how to behave correctly in meetings with employees of competitors (e.g., meetings of business associations). About 70% of the firms actively search for anticompetitive conduct that is possibly exercised by their employees. However, these investigative measures are mostly triggered by specific suspicions or are carried out as a by-product of other investigations. Purely preventive antitrust investigations are relatively uncommon.

Our study shows that antitrust compliance measures are mostly carried out by large companies and past cartel offenders. There is potential to increase the effectiveness of measures aiming at an early detection of risks (e.g., the active and preventive screening for risks in the competitive environment of a firm).