Monti promises to boost transatlantic cooperation in fight against price cartels

Date: 15/05/03

By Peter Chapman

MARIO Monti, the competition commissioner, this week pledged to bolster transatlantic cooperation in price-fixing cases.

He said the Commission wants to arrange greater exchange of information with US counterparts in the fight against cartels. The EU executive is already exchanging key information in merger cases despite the rift which followed its decision to block the merger of General Electric and Honeywell, but Monti said it was more difficult to swap confidential cartel data.

The information flow is stymied by differences in legal systems between the two trade blocs. While the EU's cartel enforcement regime relies on fines, perpetrators can face jail in the US. It is also often illegal to swap potentially incriminating information with foreign agencies in countries where sanctions are tougher. However the competition chief, speaking alongside visiting US Federal Trade Commission Chairman Tim Muris, admitted that the new accord was "not for tomorrow".

Monti added that his department was planning to employ a 'consumer officer' to handle queries and complaints from EU citizens about competition cases.

Meanwhile, officials revealed this week that one of the top candidates for DG Competition's chief economist role is a Polish-born American, Janusz Ordover. A former US Department of Justice official, Ordover teaches at New York University. Another leading contender is believed to be Martin Cave, an academic at Warwick University in the UK.

Mario Monti, the European Commissioner for Competition, has said that he will seek to increase the exchange of information with the United States of America in the fight against cartels.