Strengthened fight against cartels

Everybody knows that where cartels operate consumers must pay higher prices than they would in the event of real competition and do not benefit from technological improvements. The cartels also generate situation in favour of the most powerful companies and artificially keep the least efficient companies in the market. Thus cartels inflict considerable damage on the economy.

In most cases, cartels require complex investigations; therefore the Commission has already published in July 1996 a Notice on the non-imposition or reduction of fines in cartel cases for the companies taking the initiative to provide information and evidence.

Moreover, the fight against cartels being now the Commission's priority, a new cartel unit (E1) has been created on 1 December 1998 by the EU competition Commissioner Karel van Miert and is charged exclusively with pursuing and eliminating cartels. This new unit will be headed by Mr. Maurice Guerrin and will be composed of some twenty of DG IV 's most