Monopoly Agreements

The leniency program, a detection and investigation tool to combat monopoly agreements, is proving effective in many antimonopoly jurisdictions. It allows undertakings which have participated in a monopoly agreement to obtain a total exemption or a reduction of the fines and penalties otherwise applicable to them by reporting the case and submitting evidence to the competition authority. However, the leniency program may be applied differently in different antimonopoly jurisdictions. In some antimonopoly jurisdictions, competition authorities tend to limit the application of the leniency programme to cartel cases only. Thus, in 1996, the Commission of the European Communities adopted the Commission Notice on the non-collection or reduction of fines for anti-cartels and abuses of a dominant position, in which the Leniency Notice is authorised only for `cartels between undertakings with a view to fixing prices, production or sales quotas, distribute markets or prohibit imports or exports[1]. .