Antitrust and Competition Law
While I am not a lawyer, I have dealt with many issues - working together with dedicated Shell antitrust lawyers - in two main areas:
Horizontal Agreements and Cartels
The most serious and significant form of risk, lower-profile than bribery and corruption, but for which the financial consequences can be huge. Prosecutions are frequent and affect individuals as well as companies. Areas of my personal expertise include: * Controls design and documentation * Competitively sensitive Information flows (benchmarking, joint venture management, industry associations, secondments) * Registers of contacts with competitors * Staff training (online and face to face) * Remediation of deficiencies. |
Vertical Agreements
These are agreements between supplier and customer or between manufacturer and resellers, usually over pricing (e.g. minimum resale prices) or territorial exclusivity. The EU operates clear rules for the single market which prohibit both. Elsewhere the position varies. Fines are smaller but the risk much less well understood, so the risk of an accidental violation is higher. Areas of my personal expertise include: * Distributor and franchisee databases containing sales data * Price support * Territorial exclusivity |