COMPETITION COMPLIANCE PROGRAMMES – VIEW OF THE AUSTRIAN FEDERAL COMPETITION AUTHORITY
Competition rules concern every active participant in the economic environment. They affect managers who must make daily decisions in the interest of their companies, as well as employees who require guidance on how to implement those choices.
Companies whose market behaviour fails to comply with competition rules run the risk of incurring high cartel fines and facing other negative sanctions, such as damaged reputation and loss of confidence by the market and its participants. On that account, effective competition compliance programmes should ensure that cartel infringements ideally do not occur at all.
Compared to recent years, a change of spirit in some industries has happened. The Austrian Federal Competition Authority (AFCA) welcomes and supports all competition compliance efforts by companies as they contribute to the firm rooting of a truly competitive culture in all sectors of the economy.
In many cases, Austrian companies have already implemented programmes to ensure compliance with Austrian and EU competition law. In some instances, competition compliance programmes are developed in reaction to past infringements. The AFCA pleads for a more proactive approach to avoid anticompetitive behaviour in the future.
The legal framework in Austria
Regarding the procedure in Austria, the AFCA is the investigative, but not the decision-making body in cartel cases. Decisions are made by the Austrian Cartel Court upon receiving an application from the AFCA.
According to section 30 paragraph 1 of the Austrian Cartel Act, when fixing the amount of fines, the severity and duration of the infringement, the enrichment due to the infringement, the degree of responsibility and the economic capacity of the company must be taken into consideration. Subsequently, mitigating and aggravating reasons are to be taken into account.
Oct-Dec 2022 Issue
Austrian Federal Competition Authority