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Beaton-Wells, Caron --- "Australia’s Criminalization of Cartels: Will it be Contagious?" [2011] ELECD 749; in Drexl, Josef; Grimes, S. Warren; Jones, A. Clifford; Peritz, J.R. Rudolph; Swaine, T. Edward (eds), "More Common Ground for International Competition Law?" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: More Common Ground for International Competition Law?

Editor(s): Drexl, Josef; Grimes, S. Warren; Jones, A. Clifford; Peritz, J.R. Rudolph; Swaine, T. Edward

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849803946

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Australia’s Criminalization of Cartels: Will it be Contagious?

Author(s): Beaton-Wells, Caron

Number of pages: 27

Extract:

9. Australia's criminalization of
cartels: Will it be contagious?
Caron Beaton-Wells*

1 INTRODUCTION

The international movement in favour of criminal sanctions for `serious'
cartel conduct over the last decade has been well-documented.1 In 2009,
Australia became the latest convert in the campaign led by the United
States to have this type of anti-competitive activity seen and dealt with
as a crime. Australia's conversion may be taken as further evidence of
`common ground' if not convergence in both substantive antitrust law
and enforcement strategy with respect to cartel conduct. However, it
should be seen as commonality or convergence at the highest level of
generality or abstraction only.2 The Australian experience supports
equally the view that the approach taken by a particular country in decid-
ing whether to criminalize and, if so, how to define and enforce a cartel
offence is likely to be distinctive in various respects. There will be multiple
complex forces at work in such matters, requiring insight from at least
the disciplines of political science, sociology, regulation, organizational
behaviour, psychology and history, in addition to orthodox legal and
economic analysis.3


* The author is grateful to Brent Fisse for comments on an earlier draft and
to Christopher Tran for editorial and research assistance. Errors or omissions are
the sole responsibility of the author.
1 C Harding, `Business Collusion as a Criminological Phenomenon:

Exploring the Global Criminalisation of Cartels' (2006) 14 Critical Criminology
181.
2 Perhaps as general as the principle that ...