Hardcore cartels - quick reference guides

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This Overview signposts quick reference guides on hardcore cartels, directing practitioners to materials that explain definitions, enforcement tools and practical steps at each stage of a case. Hardcore cartels - price - fixing, market - sharing, bid‑rigging and output limitation - are treated as restrictions by object under Article 101 TFEU and the Chapter I prohibition of the Competition Act 1998, attracting the most severe administrative and, in the UK, criminal sanctions. The guides outline the roles of the Competition and Markets Authority and the European Commission, their investigatory powers (including dawn raids, compulsory information requests and interviews), confidentiality and legal professional privilege, and key strategic choices around immunity and leniency applications, markers and settlement. They address the UK criminal cartel offence under section 188 of the Enterprise Act 2002, noting that dishonesty is no longer an element and identifying statutory exclusions and defences, as well as no‑action letters for individuals. Practical summaries cover penalty methodologies and mitigating/aggravating factors, director disqualification, and public procurement exclusion risks. The materials map litigation exposure: follow‑on and stand‑alone damages actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal and courts, limitation,...

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