Antitrust and competition laws are designed to foster the development of an efficient market economy by prohibiting activities that lessen competition. Most countries have adopted antitrust and competition laws, but companies that operate internationally all too often stray across these laws because they are so complex. These competition laws provide harsh sanctions and penalties for those who violate them, including huge damages awards (e.g. treble damages), criminal fines, imprisonment for corporate executives and reputational damage. Most competition authorities aggressively prosecute violations of these competition laws and plaintiffs often pursue class action civil cases against companies for violations. 

The attorneys at MDO Partners have extensive experience in competition laws. This experience includes serving in private practice, law school faculty, U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and in-house counsel for large corporations and trade associations. We have created competition law compliance programs for organizations and worked on competition law issues with attorneys from a wide variety of countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea. 

Competition law compliance programs can provide companies with the necessary protection to minimize the risk of violations and significant fines. The objective of an antitrust compliance program is to ensure that companies fully comply with the competition laws of all countries that could exercise jurisdiction over their affairs. Even if rogue employees put their companies in legal jeopardy by failing to abide by documented, good faith compliance programs, the existence of such programs will usually serve to mitigate the adverse impact of those violations. The cost of an effective competition law compliance program, therefore, will amount to a small fraction of the cost of the potential legal exposure for even one violation of the competition laws of one country.