CARTELS AND THE COMISSION’S CURRENT INVESTIGATION, ENFORCEMENT AND DECISON-MAKING POWERS
CARTELS AND THE COMISSION’S CURRENT INVESTIGATION, ENFORCEMENT AND DECISON-MAKING POWERS

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines what implications the sanctions for the infringement of EC competition rules (Article 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty) have on procedural standards according to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (hereafter ECHR). On the one side the amount of fines imposed by the European Commission exceed the criminal penalties applied in most of the Member States (severity). On the other side deterrence as the main purpose of the fine would also render them as criminal rather than administrative (nature). There has been a substantial change in the attitude of the Commission officials as well.1 Thus the fines and the rhetoric imply a higher standard towards the procedure of the Commission. The first part of the paper sets out what would imply the higher standards. The second part examines the preconditions of applying higher standards to the procedure of the Commission. The third part presents a few issues raised by the higher standards. The fourth part draws a conclusion upon the issues raised.

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