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Wils, Wouter P.J. --- "Is Criminalization of EU Competition Law the Answer?" [2006] ELECD 450; in Cseres, J. Katalin; Schinkel, Pieter Maarten; Vogelaar, O.W. Floris (eds), "Criminalization of Competition Law Enforcement" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Criminalization of Competition Law Enforcement

Editor(s): Cseres, J. Katalin; Schinkel, Pieter Maarten; Vogelaar, O.W. Floris

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845426088

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Is Criminalization of EU Competition Law the Answer?

Author(s): Wils, Wouter P.J.

Number of pages: 50

Extract:

4. Is criminalization of EU
competition law the answer?
Wouter P.J. Wils1

1 INTRODUCTION
Given the general topic of this conference (`Remedies and Sanctions in
Competition Policy: Economic and Legal Implications of the Tendency
to Criminalize Antitrust Enforcement in the EU Member States') and the
specific topic assigned to me (`Is Criminalization of EU Competition Law
the Answer?'), I will address the following five questions in this chapter.
First, what do we mean by `criminalization', or `criminal' enforcement
(as opposed to public enforcement of a `civil' or `administrative' nature)?
Second, is there a tendency in the EU Member States to criminalize antitrust
enforcement (in comparison with US antitrust enforcement and with
antitrust enforcement at the level of the EU institutions)? Third, is criminal
antitrust enforcement, more specifically imprisonment, desirable (in general,
irrespective of whether it takes places at the level of the Member States or
of the EU institutions, or whether it is harmonized at EU level)? Fourth,
is it problematic that antitrust enforcement is criminalized at the level of
individual EU Member States without parallel criminalization at the level
of the EU institutions or without EU harmonization? Fifth, would it be
legally possible to criminalize antitrust enforcement at the level of the EU
institutions, or to have EU harmonization of criminal antitrust enforcement
in the Member States?
I should stress that this chapter contains merely my own current thinking
on these questions. None of the opinions expressed should be construed as
reflecting the views of the European Commission ...