Updates on Antitrust Leniency Program

antitrust

Useful news for anyone working at a company involved in an illegal cartel or other vast criminal conspiracy: the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has updated its leniency policy for corporate offenders, with new emphasis on prompt self-disclosure of the violations and remediation to prevent repeat offenses. The Antitrust Division has long allowed the first individual…

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A Major Shift in Antitrust Policy

antitrust

Well this is fortunate timing: one day after we had a post exploring the antitrust challenges around Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the Justice Department’s top antitrust official gave a speech warning that his division will be more likely to block proposed mergers and less likely to accept settlements that simply restrict post-merger practices. …

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Microsoft, Activision and Antitrust Issues

OK, Microsoft has proposed acquiring Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Now comes the parlor game of analyzing the ethics and compliance issues involved in this mammoth deal, and two arise right away: surviving regulatory scrutiny, and repairing Activision’s defective corporate culture. We can begin with the regulatory scrutiny, because this deal captures so many current…

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Update on Antitrust Enforcement Issues

antitrust

A new analysis of cartel enforcement in 2019 finds that corporate penalties continued to remain low at the end of the 2010s, even as the number of cartel enforcement actions seems to be holding steady — which might suggest that regulators’ shift to more cooperation and compliance is paying off. That’s one inference to draw…

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Brace for Procurement Compliance!

antitrust

The Justice Department is launching a new task force to crack down on procurement fraud, so corporate compliance officers should brace for a new wave of interest in how your employees chat with rivals and approach bidding on government contracts.  The dog and pony show happened in Washington on Tuesday, complete with a press conference…

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