A Study On The US-EU Cartel Leniency Policy

Cartel is a typical form of market economy monopoly form. It limits the relative market's competition, obstructs economy development, injures consumer's interest. As cartel has the feature of secrecy, traditional investigation methods can't find cartel easily. Leniency policy is an incentive system that if conspirators involved in a cartel confess the cartel to antitrust authority, they can get lenient treatment. Leniency policy is a helper for antitrust authority in cracking cartel, it can grasp cartel's weakness, and destroy cartel from its interior. Until now, many countries, including China, have introduced the leniency policy against cartel under the guidance of the US and the EU. But compared with the US-EU mature leniency policy, Chinese leniency policy is still young. So, this thesis analyzes, on the basis of reading lots of domestic and foreign document, general theory of leniency policy, successful experience of the US-EU leniency policy, situation and deficiency of Chinese leniency policy, expecting to figure out ways to perfect current Chinese leniency policy.This thesis is divided into four parts:The first part expounds general theory of leniency policy, in order to clarify the relationship between cartel and leniency policy and explain leniency policies' effect.The second part demonstrates foreign successful leniency policies, introducing leniency policies of the US, the EU and some EU members. Besides, to study foreign country's advanced experience, there is a comparative research about substantial and procedural rules between foreign countries' leniency policies.The third part discusses three special questions in leniency policy, they are differential treatment in leniency policy, security measure of leniency policy and the relationship between leniency policy and private litigation. Handling these three questions well is conducive to make leniency policy effective.The fourth part intends to propose suggestion on perfecting current Chinese leniency policy, it demonstrates the situation and deficiency of Chinese leniency policy, pointing that current leniency policy can't work effectively in China, and then author suggests to perfect Chinese leniency policy in rules and operating environment aspects according to foreign advanced experience and Chinese current condition.