ANALYSIS
Spill-over to Accession Countries
Macedonian lawmakers also recognized the need for an
effective leniency program and in early 2014, they went
beyond the ability to award only legal entities with immunity or reduce fines. Specifically, the Criminal Code
was changed to allow legal representatives of involved
companies to be released from punishment if s/he significantly contributes to the discovery of prohibited
market practices.
In terms of protection of competition within the EU, the
strings between the Commission and the respective authorities of Accession Countries are well tied. However,
national regulators of the Accession Countries are separate and a very important piece of the competition puzzle concerning transnational cartels that affect their jurisdiction. Subsequently, when it comes to enforcing leniency policy on international cartels, these competition
authorities act independently within their jurisdictions.
If an Accession Country’s competition authority becomes aware that the Commission sanctioned a cartel
that also operated in their jurisdiction, they are likely to
launch an investigation. Such an operation would likely
have EU practice and know-how behind it, even if the
specific details of the case would not be shared. Further, the respective authority would likely obtain information and evidence regarding the cartel in question
that would enable them to pursue an efficient and effective misdemeanor procedure.
For example, the Toshiba case – which took place before the Czech Republic acceded to the EU – involved
separate prosecution by the Commission and the Czech
Competition Authority2. In that case, both the Commission and the Czech Competition Authority sanctioned
the involved companies to pay fines totaling roughly
EUR 790 million.
Conclusion
There is no ‘one-stop leniency shop’ for competition
infringements that affect both EU and Accession Countries. If a company is ready to expose an infringement
2 The judgement of the European Court of
Justice (Grand Chamber) is available at: http://
curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document_print.
jsf?doclang=EN&text=&part=1&docid=119427&cid=996212
to the Commission, it should be prepared to file leniency applicat