What Companies Don't Know Can Hurt Them: Dealing With Competitors*

I. The Department of Justice is Strengthening Cartel Enforcement

For the past twenty years, the Department of Justice ("DoJ") has ramped up its enforcement of cartels. From large international cartels to bid rigging on local contracts, the Antitrust Division is aggressively prosecuting companies and individuals involved in cartel conduct. A prime example of this is the DoJ's recent prosecution of AU Optronics, Taiwan's second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays. A jury in San Francisco found AU Optronics and two of its employees guilty of fixing prices. In September 2012, the government argued that AU Optronics should be sentenced to a $1 billion criminal fine and that two of its executives should serve ten-year prison sentences.² The court eventually handed down a $500 million dollar fine and sentenced the two executives to three years in prison.