Criminal Prosecution In Anti-Trust Enforcement

Esha Alex, B.A. LLB (Hons.), School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University)

ABSTRACT

Antitrust enforcement has predominantly been subject to a civil standard of proof since its inception. The civil standard of proof in Anti -Trust regulation, better known as the ‘per-se’ and ‘balance of probabilities’, which has a lower threshold as a standard of proof also necessitates the imposition of penalties and fines upon those who involve in activities that are in breach of Antitrust Law such as bid rigging, price fixing etc. The key research objective of this paper is to understand the applicability and needs for a criminal standard of proof in-view of Anti -trust enforcement. This paper shall investigate the current trends of Antitrust violations, assess the implementation of the per-se standard and interpret the fundamentals of crime trailing the pathway to establish a criminal standard of proof, that is “Beyond reasonable doubt” to establish better deterrence of Anti-trust violations that shall be applicable to a catena of Antitrust Violations.

Keywords: Per Se, civil standard, Ant-trust Violations, Fines, Criminal Standard, Beyond all Reasonable Doubt