Cartels In Italy

Originally Published by Global Competition Review

Public Enforcement Trend Against Cartels: The Increased Role Of Commitments' Decision

While in 2007 the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) reached its personal record in cartel's prosecution by applying fines for €62 million in total, positioning itself, according to its Annual Report published in June 2008 (2008 Report), as the 'top European national competition authority for fining cartels', 2008 has indubitably been a year of decrease: ICA, indeed, applied fines in three cartel cases for 'only' €1.6 million in total.

This contraction in cartels' fines is probably due to some contingencies (for instance, a low number of cases decided in 2008) and to the increase of cartel investigations closed with commitments' decision, in line with that declared by Mr Catricalà in his official speech for the presentation of the 2008 Report: 'commitments' decisions, in a context of economic steadiness, can be a more effective