Antitrust Compliance Programs: Time To Recalibrate Your Risk-Benefit Analysis?

Recent developments in the global legal landscape point to the inevitable conclusion that having an effective antitrust compliance program in place is now more important than ever.

The marked increase in cooperation and coordination between antitrust enforcement agencies around the globe over the last decade has been widely reported.  So it is surely no coincidence that we have witnessed an unprecedented chorus of commentary on the importance of antitrust compliance programs by a number of antitrust enforcement agencies over the last several months.  In November 2011, the European Commission issued its first-ever guidance on competition law compliance programs entitled "Compliance matters: What companies can do better to respect EU competition rules."  In February 2012, the French Competition Authority released its "Framework Document on Antitrust Compliance Programmes."  And on June 11, 2012, the Chilean Competition Agency published its "Guidelines on Competition