A Different Path to the Same Old Question: Why Should Cartels be Criminalised?

Regardless of the extreme negative qualifications usually attributed to cartels and bid rigging, EU and Portuguese competition laws do not set them apart from other anticompetitive practices regarding the possible applicable sanctions. EU and Portuguese competition laws establish the same potential...

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Main Author: Nuno Castro Marques
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Católica Editora 2017-10-01
Series:Market and Competition Law Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/mclawreview/article/view/352
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author Nuno Castro Marques
author_facet Nuno Castro Marques
author_sort Nuno Castro Marques
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description Regardless of the extreme negative qualifications usually attributed to cartels and bid rigging, EU and Portuguese competition laws do not set them apart from other anticompetitive practices regarding the possible applicable sanctions. EU and Portuguese competition laws establish the same potential sanctions for all competition infringements. Despite that, there are clear indications that EU and Portuguese legislators intend to treat cartels differently from all other competition infringements. Despite that, there are clear indications that EU and Portuguese legislators intend to treat cartels differently from all other competition infringements, but those differences have essentially to do with rules or procedures designed to facilitate their detection, production of evidence and decision-making. Notwithstanding the relevance of the “traditional” arguments regarding cartel criminalization, we consider that the discussion is still incomplete and would benefit from the inclusion of an additional “filter”. As it is a discussion about a criminalization process, the use of common instruments in criminology can shed more light into the question, and one of those instruments – or the most important one – is the analysis of the legal interests protected by the norm. We deem it essential to think about what legal interests are harmed in each of the different types of competition infringements, so as to conclude if indeed and to what extent cartels and bid rigging are capable of impairing more or different legal interests, or in a different intensity, than those potentially violated by other types of competition infringements. The conclusion is that cartel and bid rigging conducts always infringe the entire set of legal interests that is or may be defended by competition laws and always do so with high intensity.
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spelling doaj-art-900afc924bc344d0a115dbea725f4b4e2025-01-03T01:41:37ZengUniversidade Católica EditoraMarket and Competition Law Review2184-00082017-10-011210.7559/mclawreview.2017.352A Different Path to the Same Old Question: Why Should Cartels be Criminalised?Nuno Castro Marques0School of Economics and Management, Universidade do Porto, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal Regardless of the extreme negative qualifications usually attributed to cartels and bid rigging, EU and Portuguese competition laws do not set them apart from other anticompetitive practices regarding the possible applicable sanctions. EU and Portuguese competition laws establish the same potential sanctions for all competition infringements. Despite that, there are clear indications that EU and Portuguese legislators intend to treat cartels differently from all other competition infringements. Despite that, there are clear indications that EU and Portuguese legislators intend to treat cartels differently from all other competition infringements, but those differences have essentially to do with rules or procedures designed to facilitate their detection, production of evidence and decision-making. Notwithstanding the relevance of the “traditional” arguments regarding cartel criminalization, we consider that the discussion is still incomplete and would benefit from the inclusion of an additional “filter”. As it is a discussion about a criminalization process, the use of common instruments in criminology can shed more light into the question, and one of those instruments – or the most important one – is the analysis of the legal interests protected by the norm. We deem it essential to think about what legal interests are harmed in each of the different types of competition infringements, so as to conclude if indeed and to what extent cartels and bid rigging are capable of impairing more or different legal interests, or in a different intensity, than those potentially violated by other types of competition infringements. The conclusion is that cartel and bid rigging conducts always infringe the entire set of legal interests that is or may be defended by competition laws and always do so with high intensity. https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/mclawreview/article/view/352CartelsCompetition lawObjectives of competition lawLegal interests
spellingShingle Nuno Castro Marques
A Different Path to the Same Old Question: Why Should Cartels be Criminalised?
Market and Competition Law Review
Cartels
Competition law
Objectives of competition law
Legal interests
title A Different Path to the Same Old Question: Why Should Cartels be Criminalised?
title_full A Different Path to the Same Old Question: Why Should Cartels be Criminalised?
title_fullStr A Different Path to the Same Old Question: Why Should Cartels be Criminalised?
title_full_unstemmed A Different Path to the Same Old Question: Why Should Cartels be Criminalised?
title_short A Different Path to the Same Old Question: Why Should Cartels be Criminalised?
title_sort different path to the same old question why should cartels be criminalised
topic Cartels
Competition law
Objectives of competition law
Legal interests
url https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/mclawreview/article/view/352
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AT nunocastromarques differentpathtothesameoldquestionwhyshouldcartelsbecriminalised