Antitrust Experts Urge Tougher Criminal Penalties for Corporate
Violators
D.C. Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg and George Mason law
professor and Federal Trade Commissioner Joshua Wright have urged
the U.S. Sentencing Commission to consider increasing prison
sentences, fines and other penalties for corporate officers and
directors responsible for antitrust violations. In their July 28, 2014, letter to the Sentencing
Commission, Ginsburg and Wright also criticized corporate-level
penalties for antitrust violations as ineffective and stated that
existing individual penalties are "far too modest to induce
optimal compliance with the law." The letter was written in
response to the Sentencing Commission's request for public
comment on its proposed priority policy issues, including studying
antitrust offenses and related penalties.
