WIELDING A BIG STICK

Abstract

A FEW YEARS AGO, THE U.S. TOOK a leadership role in rooting out international price-fixing cartels. But last year, it seemed as if the Europeans had taken the lead. The European Commission—the executive arm of the European Union—undertook investigations into alleged anticompetitive behavior among makers of six chemicals just in the last six months of 2002. It investigated and levied fines in three additional instances. For all of 2002, the European Commission assessed fines of about $1 billion against cartel operators in a wide variety of businesses, from flavor enhancers to concrete reinforcing bars. By contrast, U.S. officials were not nearly as active. And some of the investigative activity the U.S. Department of Justice did undertake seemed to be at the behest of European competition officials led by the EC commissioner responsible for competition, Mario Monti. In the recent past, the U.S. has been no slouch when it came to revealing hard-core cartel activity ...