This presentation by the OECD Secretariat was made during the discussion “Compliance Programmes in Antitrust Enforcement” held at the 19th meeting of the OECD-IDB Latin American and Caribbean Competition Forum on 20 September 2021. More papers and presentations on the topic can be found out at oe.cd/laccf.

1. COMPETITION COMPLIANCE
PROGRAMMES
Presentation by the Secretariat to
OECD-IDB Latin American and Caribbean
Competition Forum
20 September 2021

2. Competition compliance programmes (CP):
elements of an effective programme and
competition agency policies that relate to
such programmes to incentivise and assess
them.
What are crucial elements of effective programmes?
How to incentivize firms to adopt them.
Focus
2

3.  Rewards
CP existing prior to the offence – some policies
reward
CP introduced or improved post-offence
Leniency/immunity as the strongest reward
 CP as part of conditional case resolution
mechanisms – obligations/commitments
As condition for leniency applicants
 Assessment/evaluation outside the enforcement
context
Policies
3

4. Mixed messages from enforcement
4
Leniency applications, dawn raids and ex-officio investigations in
cartel cases, 2015-2019
Note: Data based on the 50 jurisdictions in the CompStats database that provided data for five years. 4 jurisdictions
have reported the total number of dawn raids for both cartels and abuse of dominance cases. Source: OECD
CompStats Database.
Source: Secretariat background paper, p 25, https://www.oecd.org/daf/competition/competition-compliance-
programmes.htm.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Cartel ex-officio investigations Dawn raids Leniency applications

5.  Anti-corruption
Main driver of intensified compliance efforts
Reward policies differ
Likelihood of detection and reporting differs
 Public procurement
Policies can leverage compliance incentives and
message
Self-cleaning provisions (EU)
Other policy areas
5

6.  Role of self-reporting and co-operation
 Management involvement
 Company-internal incentives to comply – salary
structures
 Peer learning/third-party compliance
 (Future) requirements – smart use of AI for
compliance monitoring
 Gender balance?
Essential elements
6