Good to see the Commerce Commission proposing refinement to its leniency policy for cartels this week in line with international innovation in this area. In case cartel leniency seems an odd concept, the idea is that the state promises not to prosecute you for involvement in a cartel IF you are the whistleblower. So cartel members eye up their mates, wondering if they’re about to dob everyone else in, and the result is often get a race to confess.
The details of the refinements will be interesting I’m sure, but in the meantime, it reminds me of a news item I gleaned during the mobile termination bunfight in Wellington this week.
As I understand it, the Germans have recently allowed for cartel victims to sue for damages. Fair enough you probably think, but one consequence is that it undermines the leniency programme. The state won’t prosecute the whistleblower, but the victims can. It seems to me that they could easily have extended immunity for whistleblowers to the private action legislation. Must investigate further.