EU: Whistleblower programme to uncover cartels in the works

European Union antitrust regulators are considering a programme for disgruntled employees or unhappy consumers to blow the whistle on cartels more easily, a European Commission official said on Wednesday.

Director of cartels Eric Van Ginderachter said a whistleblowing scheme would complement the Commission’s leniency programme where companies get either no fine or a smaller penalty in return for alerting the regulator to a cartel, reported Reuters.

“We are reflecting how to make competition policy more effective,” he told a cartels conference organised by IBC Legal. “That is why in this context we have been considering and at this stage analysing a whistleblower regime.”

He said such a system might encourage anonymous consumers, companies and sacked employees to come forward with their complaints to an intermediary, who would then examine whether there was any basis to the grievances before forwarding them to the Commission.

Full content: CNBC

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