Corporate Antitrust Compliance Programs – Increased Fines or Incentives? The Battle for Compliance Explored in 2015
Overview:
An effective antitrust compliance program is essential to minimize criminal antitrust conduct and to help companies comply with the law. Traditionally, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division has avoided providing specific guidelines for Corporate Antitrust Compliance Programs. Instead, it has provided generalized standards and encouraged companies to create their own antitrust compliance program that is most suited to the company’s business and its markets.
Increasingly, the Division seeks to promote competition by enforcing a new guideline on antitrust. The Amnesty Plus program, part of the US Corporate Leniency Policy, provides companies with incentives to institute and maintain effective antitrust compliance programs and to undertake comprehensive internal investigations to dissuade anticompetitive violations. Today, it is one of the most useful means to start cartel antitrust investigations. Amnesty Plus encourages firms, convicted in one market, to report their collusion in other markets.
In this CLE course, seasoned speakers assembled by The Knowledge Group will discuss developing and maintaining effective Corporate Antitrust Compliance Programs and the imposition of Increased Fines or Incentives. The panel of speakers also will provide compliance professionals with an overview of the opposing antitrust guidelines of Increasing Criminal Antitrust Fines and Corporate Compliance Incentives.
Key topics include:
- Antitrust Laws
- Corporate Leniency Program
- Qualifying for Leniency
- Amnesty Plus Program
- Consequences of Increased Fines
- More Trials
- Foregoing Plea Bargaining
- Developing Corporate Compliance Programs
- Minimizing Litigation Risk
Agenda:
SEGMENT 1:
Helene D. Jaffe, Partner, Head of Antitrust Practice Group
Brown Rudnick LLP
- Why Antitrust Compliance matters: Costs of non-compliance increasing in U.S. and Internationally (fines, incarceration, civil litigation)
- Increased fines or incentives - not an either/or proposition
- Amnesty Program: successes and failures
- Non-amnesty means of deterrence
- Prevention Remains Best Defense - Chapter 8 of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
SEGMENT 2:
Ralph Palumbo, Founding Member
Summit Law Group
An effective antitrust compliance program should include the following elements:
- Written compliance standards tailored to the company and industry;
- An antitrust compliance team with representatives from each of the company’s business units and headed by a high level executive;
- An anonymous reporting system;
- Education and training programs for all employees with emphasis on employees in sensitive positions;
- Periodic antitrust audits conducted by the company’s antitrust compliance team and independent antitrust experts;
- A compensation program that awards compliance and punishes non-compliance;
- Consistent enforcement of standards through appropriate disciplinary mechanisms; and
- A fast action program to report and cure potential antitrust violations.
Antitrust compliance is often difficult to achieve in emerging product and technology markets where the boundaries of unlawful conduct are not well defined and the rewards for success are great. Examples include Microsoft’s conduct to maintain its PC operating system monopoly and Apples’ entry into the e-book market.
In such product and technologies markets, the recommended additional compliance program element is appointment of independent antitrust expert to monitor business conduct and report potentially questionable business practices to the company’s antitrust compliance executive and the Board of Directors.
Who Should Attend:
- Compliance Program Directors
- Compliance and Risk Professionals
- Internal Auditors
- Senior Counsel
- In-house Counsel
- Senior Executives
- Board of Directors
- Other Related/Interested Professionals
A founding member of Summit Law Group, Ralph’s practice includes a unique depth of experience in complex commercial litigation, environmental …
Helene Jaffe concentrates her practice on the transactional, counseling and litigation aspects of antitrust law with a focus on mergers …
Course Level:
Intermediate
Advance Preparation:
Print and review course materials
Method of Presentation:
On-demand Webcast (CLE)
Prerequisite:
NONE
Course Code:
155314
NASBA Field of Study:
Specialized Knowledge and Applications
NY Category of CLE Credit:
Areas of Professional Practice
Total Credits:
2.0 CLE
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SPEAKERS' FIRMS:
About Summit Law Group
In 1997, Summit Law Group revolutionized the traditional law firm model by championing a structure and approach to focus on what matters most: its customers. Its mission is to think creatively and proactively in formulating the most effective and efficient solutions to its customers’ legal needs. Summit has only seasoned professionals practicing in Corporate, Environmental, Labor & Employment, and Litigation, each of whom is accountable directly to the customer. It removed all the excess baggage that is unnecessary to providing quality work – no lavish offices, no expensive art, no training of junior associates on its customer’s dime. Summit is so confident with the services it provides that it lets the customers decide how Summit should be compensated through its innovative fee arrangements and a Value Adjustment Line on every invoice – customers can adjust Summit’s fees based on what they believe Summit’s services are worth. The view is different from the Summit.
Website: https://www.summitlaw.com/
About Brown Rudnick LLP
Brown Rudnick, an international law firm with offices in the United States and Europe, represents clients from around the world in high-stakes litigation, international arbitration and complex business transactions. Clients include public and private corporations, multinational Fortune 100 businesses and start-up enterprises. The Firm also represents investors, as well as official and ad hoc creditors’ committees in today’s largest corporate restructurings, both domestically and abroad. Founded more than 60 years ago, Brown Rudnick has over 230 lawyers providing advice and services across key areas of the law. Beyond the United States, the Firm regularly serves clients in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. With its Brown Rudnick Center for the Public Interest, the Firm has created an innovative model combining its pro bono, charitable giving and community volunteer efforts.
Website: https://www.brownrudnick.com/home