Conference on Prevention and Compliance

The main topics raised during the national conference were: How can real prevention work? How can employees be trained in order to avoid wrong behavior? If it is a matter of organizational culture how can competition authorities help to implement a system for building awareness? What kind of role play "compliance programs" of law firms in order to prevent forbidden actions? Do law firms really want to detect cartels and stop them or are they just advising how cartels can be hidden? What are the legal consequences for this kind legal advice?

The conference was opened by Director General Dr. Theodor Thanner who raised awareness on ethic and legal aspects of prevention. A clear legal framework is according to Dr. Thanner essential to further knowledge and to prevent engagement in unlawful horizontal or vertical conduct. Upon request Mr. Thanner stressed that compliance programs should not be considered as mitigation circumstances when they have been used to hide agreements.

The first panel focused on the theory of prevention. Participants representing the academic fields of law, game theory and ethics took into consideration the human principles concerning competition/rivalry in general, the tendency to collaborate and the motivation to act according the law in comparison to infringe.

During the second session, the speakers and the guests debated from a more practical point of view the human and organizational behaviour, the deterrent effect of fines and the role and the consequences of compliance programs. They underlined the importance of role models, teaching lessons and understandable guidelines to implement behavior according to cartel law.

In the last session international guests for UNCTAD, IACA and other European competition Authorities offered their views on what Competition Agencies can do to promote competition in the context of prevention and to what extent prevention campaigns are possible in practice.

The international conference on the second day was also opened by Director General Dr. Thanner who explained the preventive measures of the Austrian Federal Competition Authority. The key note speaker Mister Francois Souty spoke about "Compliance policy as a tool for law enforcement". He mentioned the origin of compliance in EU and US law, the different tools and the main elements of compliance. After him a Panel with speakers from the University of Vienna, UNCTAD, the Bulgarian competition Authority and the Croatian competition Authority discussed on the topic "Deterrent Competition Law enforcement - ways of implementation". They particularly underlined that enforcement and compliance programs are part of a portfolio of tools which can be used flexibly but stressed these tools require permanent attention and resources, which leads to priority setting in Competition Authorities. In the afternoon the BWB organized three different workshops on leniency and compliance, settlement and compliance and international cooperation/remedies and compliance. These workshops were especially interesting because the participants of different nationalities discussed how these tools are implemented in their countries.