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ICN Cartel Workshop Cape Town

ICN Cartel Workshop Cape Town. Barbara Schulze Bundeskartellamt International Competition Matters. Mini Plenary IV – Information Sharing: Barriers, Waives and Challenges,. Cape Town, 17 October 2013. Overview.

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ICN Cartel Workshop Cape Town

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  1. ICN Cartel Workshop Cape Town Barbara Schulze Bundeskartellamt International Competition Matters Mini Plenary IV – Information Sharing: Barriers, Waives and Challenges, Cape Town, 17 October 2013

  2. Overview • Cooperation and information sharing is a bilateral exercise - Knowing each other is key. • Legal frameworks – barriers to information sharing • Ways to overcome these barriers • Challenges to cooperation • Case example: The Mills Case (DE, F, NL) • Informal exchange of information 17 October 2013

  3. I.1 Who am “I” - The Bundeskartellamt Institutional design • President, Vice-President • General Policy Division, International Unit • Litigation Department, Specialised Unit • 12 Decision Divisions (3 specialized on cartels) • Independent bodies, decisions taken by Head of division + 2 Rapporteurs by majority vote (court like structure) • Bundeskartellamt budget: € 25 Mio. • Around 320 employees (140 legal experts/economists) 17 October 2013

  4. The Bundeskartellamt - Organisation 17 October 2013

  5. The Bundeskartellamt’s legal framework • Art. 101 and 102 TFEU, EU-Regulations and Guidelines • Act against Restraints of Competition • (enacted1958, 8th Amendment of 30 June, 2013) • Administrative regulations of the Bundeskartellamt • i.e. leniency programme, guidelines on the setting of fines • AdministrativeOffencesAct • Code of Criminal Procedure 17 October 2013

  6. BKArtA-Enforcement Activities - Cartels • Cartel Cases 2012: • Number of leniency applications: 51 • Number of dawn raids: 8 + 5 for the European Commission + 1 for competition agencies of other EU Member States • Number of cartel cases closed: 21 • Total fines: € 316 million 17 October 2013

  7. Enforcement Activities - Cartels Recent cases – recent experience • Price fixingofcoffeeroasters: working group of directors and sales managers of different coffee roasters coordinated price increases for roasted coffee in the out-of-house market (supply of gastronomy, hotels, …) • Agreements on quotasforfireengines:companies' sales managers of two producers of fire engines with turntable ladders (combined market share of nearly 100%) divided tenders among each other on the basis of project lists to divide the market up in a ratio of 50/50 • Territorial agreementsbetweenliquefied gas suppliers: suppliers agreed not to poach customers from one another. Customers wishing to switch supplier were either not quoted a price, or if at all, an excessive “deterrent price”. 17 October 2013

  8. I.2 Who is the other?- Cooperation with other agencies (1) • National: • Regional Cartel Authorities (16 “Länder”) • Ministry of Economics (not in cartel cases) • Europe: • European Commission • European Competition Network (ECN) 17 October 2013

  9. Cooperation with other agencies (2) • International: • International Competition Network (ICN) • Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) • United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) • Bilateral cooperation – special: USA, Switzerland 17 October 2013

  10. II. Barriers to information sharing • Legal barriers • Confidentiality • Professional secrecy • Data protection • Other • Factual barriers • Different legal systems and cultures • Language barriers • Resources (you just cannot do it) 17 October 2013

  11. III. Overcoming the barriers • ECN • Information exchangefornetworkpurposes • Information exchangeforuse in evidence • National informationgateways • Available in several countries • Germany: Sec. 50 b ARC • Bilateral Treaties • Gemany-USA; EU-Switzerland • Waivers 17 October 2013

  12. IV. Challenges • Legal – even within the ECN remaining uncertainties about certain grey zones (eg do double standards apply or those of transmitting agency) • Personal – resources, languages, time zones, different instutional set-up, mutal trust, in particular in view of past experience, • Factual – effects of cooperation or non-cooperation on strategies of leniency applications and defendants 17 October 2013

  13. V. Case Example: the mills case • Cartelproceedings in DE, FR and NL againstthemillingindustry – common legal framework on substance, but national procedures. • Leniencyapplications in eachcountry, coordinationofcourseofinvestigation, in particularthesettingoffines. • But: difficultiestocoordinatetiming in viewof national constraintsand different institutionalorganisation. • Finedbehaviour different in eachcountry, noibis in idem but: • Financial limitationsofdefendants, inabilitytopay. 17 October 2013

  14. VI. Informal information exchange • Informal exchanges can get already help • Keeping in mind that definition of confidential might differ • OECD started work on definitions – asked members to provide information on their legal framework • Exchange views on theories of harm, share publicly available information on cases, markets, else • Provide information on timing • Limitations 17 October 2013

  15. Thank you! Forfurtherinformation: http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/wEnglisch/index.php http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/wDeutsch/download/pdf/Merkblaetter/Merkblaetter_englisch/ICN_Anti-Cartel_Enforcement_Template_2013.pdf Barbara Schulze Head of Unit International CompetitionMatters Bundeskartellamt Kaiser-Friedrich-Str. 16 D-53113 Bonn Tel: +49 (0) 228 / 94 99 - 240 Fax: +49 (0) 228 / 94 99 - 144 E-Mail: barbara.schulze@bundeskartellamt.bund.de Internet: www.bundeskartellamt.de

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