Rewarding Competition Compliance – Its Societal Value and How Policy Alignment Can Help

Abstract

The current approach in competition law towards deterrence of anticompetitive conduct is through ex post sanctions, including related enforcement, and is insufficient. There is inherent societal value in better encouraging competition law compliance by firms. Added focus should be placed on creative complementary measures that do so, including rewarding desired conduct using positive incentives. Firms should be seen not only as potential infringers, but also as valuable partners in ensuring competitive markets. Compliance tools used in relation to competition policy focus less on preventive measures than some other areas of regulatory compliance, such as environmental protection, anti-bribery, and corporate sustainability, which provide useful points of learning. Improved self-enforcement by firms could moreover help improve the state of international antitrust by narrowing the enormous disparity between various national competition authorities’ resources and capacity.

Keywords: incentives, rewards, competition law, compliance, enforcement

JEL Classification: G38, K21, L40