April 11, 2013
In an effort to offer some insight into the European Union's cartel settlement system, Latham & Watkins partner Marc Hansen teamed up with Flavio Laina, head of the cartel settlement unit at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition, and another leading practitioner in Brussels for an in-depth interview with Global Competition Review on the current settlement regime.
Earlier this year, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia announced that he expected as many as half of the Commission’s cartel cases to be resolved by settlements within the next few years. This prediction was questioned by some lawyers working in the antitrust and competition space, who see the EU settlement process as slow and without appropriate benefits to justify the potential disadvantages of acknowledging liability.
The interview offers perspectives from both sides of the settlement negotiation table discussing the current process, analyzing recent practice and weighing in on whether we will see the uptick in settlements that Almunia predicts. Read the full article.