Commitment Decisions in Antitrust Cases

Over the last decade, an increasing number of competition authorities have obtained powers to adopt commitment decisions or other forms of negotiated/ consensual termination of antitrust cases. The terminology used varies depending on the jurisdictions: some refer to these tools as commitment decisions, others as consent decrees, consent orders, or (written) undertakings. Resolution through commitment decisions or other negotiated remedies can be very attractive for competition authorities, companies and third parties, although there are concerns regarding the use of commitment decisions as opposed to full-fledged infringement investigations.

In June 2016, the OECD Competition Committee held a roundtable to discuss commitment decisions in antitrust cases. The discussion took stock of agencies’ experience and explored arguments in favour of and against the use of commitment decisions, judicial review of commitment decisions, and the relationship between commitment decisions and damages actions.

Read the Executive summary with key findings from the discussion.

Read the Summary of the discussion.

Access the full list of Competition Policy Roundtables

JUNE 2016 SESSION DOCUMENTATION

Panellists, papers and presentations

Executive summary with key findings | Synthèse

Summary of the discussion (Français)

Background Note by the Secretariat • ppt

Note de référence du Secrétariat

Summaries of contributions

Tadashi SHIRAISHI Bio
University of Tokyo, Japan presenting Commitment decisions in the Japanese context | ppt

Joshua WRIGHT Bio
George Mason University, US presenting
Antitrust settlements: the culture of consent
and
Costs and benefits of antitrust consents