AB-2011-56-2-09-Schinkel, Bargaining in the Shadow of the European Settlement Procedure for Cartels

European Commission (the Commission) officials have made perfectly
clear, since the release of the Commission’s “settlement package” in
the fall of 2007, that the European settlement procedure for cartel
cases would not involve any bargaining. “The Commission does not
negotiate the appropriate sanction,” officials insisted in conferences—
a line also included in the published Notice. Cartel members can get a
ten percent reduction of the ultimate fine in exchange for acknowledging
their involvement and cooperation in the swift conclusion of their
case. That is a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Use of the term plea bargaining
for the procedure would be wholly inappropriate, as would be most
comparisons to U.S. antitrust law enforcement. . . .