Is criminalisation the best possible solution to deter anticompetitive behaviour in European Union?

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Dissertation title:
Is criminalisation the best possible solution to deter anticompetitive behaviour in European Union?

Research question/Aim:

The aim of this dissertation is to understand the current laws and sanctions in competition law. The approach used by the USA compared to the rest of the world especially European countries. Why has European Union been lagging behind when it comes to the criminal sanctions for anticompetitive behaviour. Furthermore, this paper aims to look if the approach of incarceration taken by USA has actually been successful in practice. If not, what is the plan of action for other countries moving forward.

Rational:
Competition law is widely explored area in academia. Multiple papers have been written on this topic focusing on different aspects of anticompetitive behaviours. This paper would help bring these areas of competition law into focus for the general consumers. As they are the most affected party with very little knowledge when it comes to anticompetitive behaviours in general. This paper aim is to help build a social consensus on how anticompetitive practices are bad for the society as a whole like any other crime and why there is a need for criminal sanctions to stop the wrongdoers.

Chapter plan:

Chapter Two 3500 words
This chapter will start by giving an overview of the area and discuss the theories underpinning competition law. The main focus in this chapter would be deterrence theory and how it works in competition law. The chapter will also discuss the legitimacy test for criminal sanctions in antitrust law by Godefroy De Moncuit. His View on this area, how the test must be applied in practice and mainly focusing on the social consensus. Currently outside USA public opinion does not seem to request the imprisonment of individuals involved in competition law infringements. Precisely, the prison sentence is more than legal issue, as it involves a democratic question by gauging the popular wave that supports the criminalisation of antitrust law. The idea is to try to explain and educate the public how this is as bad as any other crime so it must be criminalised to prevent it from happening.

Chapter Three 3000 words
This chapter will cover whether the criminalisation of competition enforcement is desirable. We will focus on the arguments in favour of imprisonment and what must be done to make imprisonment effective; not just in theory but in practice. The paper will also discuss the types of violations where imprisonment is desirable and what are other equally effective alternatives to imprisonment. This chapter will end by looking at the data and case law collected by US in relation to the criminal sanctions and compare it with countries in European union like UK which have criminal sanctions in place but have not been successful in putting wrongdoers in jail. We will see if it is really been effective to deter protentional or repeated offenders on antitrust law.

Chapter Four 3500 words
This chapter will focus on the EU competition law and examine if there is a tendency to criminalise antitrust enforcement in EU member states. The paper will further clarify if it is a problem that antitrust enforcement is criminalised in individual member states but not on an EU institutional level or without EU harmonization. This chapter will end by exploring if it is legally possible that criminalisation of antitrust enforcement is available in EU institutions or through EU harmonisation where such sanctions are followed by all member states.

Chapter Five 1000 words
I intend to conclude that there exists a sufficient risk to society if there are no immediate reforms in competition law. I will show how white-collar crimes are not as strongly condemned as more traditional crimes like theft and murder. I will show that this stance has been recently changing and more work is required to educate people. Furthermore, this paper will show that imprisonment is by far the best option out of all, but multiple sanctions must be applied simultaneously to achieve desirable results.