CPI Europe Column edited by Anna Tzanaki (Competition Policy International) & Juan Delgado (Global Economics Group) presents:
Cartel Leniency & Immunity: The Mysterious Case of the Missing Markers by Oliver Bretz & Sarah Long (Euclid Law)
Intro by Juan Delgado (Global Economics Group)
The European Commission introduced in its 2006 revision of the Leniency programme the concept of ‘marker’ which is a temporary protection for potential leniency applicants while they prepare a full leniency application. The object of the marker is to grant companies some predictability on the level of immunity they will obtain once they submit the full application and to induce earlier leniency applications by inducing competition between potential applicants. However, the marker system is not actually being used in the case of complex cartels where the Commission is unable to establish criteria to implement it. As Oliver Bretz and Sarah Long (Euclid Law, London) point in this month’s column, the solution in these cases is not to skip the marker system but to improve it to make it effective.
Something strange has been happening at DG Competition recently. The word ‘marker’ has been excised from the vocabulary.
The introduction of the ‘innovative’ marker system
The introduction of a discretionary marker system came into force on 8 December 2006, as part of the revised Commission Notice on Immunity from fines and reduction of fines in cartel cases1 (‘the
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