Competition Compliance: The Path Travelled and the Way to Go…The CNMC’s Experience

Compliance is every effort an authority does to increase awareness on the importance of competition law, its benefits, and the consequences of infringements. The main goal remains to be the consolidation of a true culture of competition that reflects in the way in which companies do business. In line with this, the CNMC’s efforts to promote a culture of competition compliance are multifaceted:  we need vigorous competition enforcement, guidance on compliance programmes, effective communication policy and competition advocacy initiatives to increase awareness and true understanding of competition policy benefits for society as a whole.

By Cani Fernández Vicién[1]

I. INTRODUCTION

The CNMC^[2] seeks to promote and advocate for effective competition between economic operators for the proper functioning of markets, but these objectives cannot be reached through enforcement alone. Ultimately, decision-making and business culture within companies should comprise antitrust compliance as an integral part. Consumers, companies, markets and society as a whole will benefit from a business environment where antitrust compliance is a must.

The CNMC has been developing several initiatives in this direction. One of them focuses on incentivizing the implementation of compliance programs. Indeed, good and effective compliance programs can contribute to the big objectives as they provide tools that enable companies not only to prevent, detect and react promptly to un