Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Calvani, Terry --- "Cartel Penalties and Damages in Ireland: Criminalization and the Case for Custodial Sentences" [2006] ELECD 461; 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 15

Section Title: Cartel Penalties and Damages in Ireland: Criminalization and the Case for Custodial Sentences

Author(s): Calvani, Terry

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

15. Cartel penalties and damages in
Ireland: criminalization and the
case for custodial sentences
Terry Calvani1

1 INTRODUCTION

Price-fixing, and related `hard-core' cartel behaviour,2 are theft and
recognized to be such under Irish law. The Competition Act, 2002 addresses
price-fixing in two ways: first, it is a crime on indictment and the Act vests
the Competition Authority and the Director of Public Prosecutions with
the power to investigate and prosecute respectively.3 Upon conviction,
individuals may be sentenced to a maximum of five years imprisonment
and fined up to 4,000,000.4 Second, it creates a private right of action to
compensate those injured by cartel conduct.5 Thus, the law focuses on both
deterrence6 and compensation.
Deterrence and compensation are both appropriate objectives. Although
fines and compensation payments can provide some deterrence, only
custodial sentences are likely to be effective. Fines and compensatory
damages would have to be much higher than current levels to effectively
deter. Such an increase is politically infeasible. Thus, satisfaction of the
deterrence objective is contingent on imposition of custodial sentences.
Compensation, while a laudatory objective, is difficult to achieve.
Interests injured by anticompetitive cartel behaviour run from the economy
generally to a range of buyers and sellers. Identification of injured parties
and measurement of the amount of injury can be very difficult. Courts
in some jurisdictions have applied arbitrary rules in order to provide an
element of compensation in an administratively efficient way. As a result,
compensation of injured ...