IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/80787.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sentencing in Ireland's First Bid-Rigging Cartel Case: An Appraisal

Author

Listed:
  • Gorecki, Paul

Abstract

The paper argues that the sentences imposed on 31 May 2107 by the Central Criminal Court in the commercial flooring bid-rigging cartel case and the methodology used in setting those sentences seriously undermines the effective enforcement of competition law in Ireland. The sentence imposed on the individual responsible for initiating and participating for 2 years and 4 months in the bid-rigging cartel was only three weeks wages or €7,500. No gaol sentence was imposed. The undertaking was fined €10,000; the value of the rigged tenders it won totalled €556,000. The Court’s reasoning did not justify the low sanctions. Current sentencing norms indicate a custodial sentence and much higher fines for both the individual and the undertaking. This is consistent with the application of EU and US Sentencing Guidelines to the facts of the commercial flooring bid-rigging cartel case. If the sentences imposed by the Central Criminal Court are not successfully appealed as being unduly lenient and appropriate sentencing guidelines developed, then the prospect for competition law enforcement in Ireland is grim. In particular, the effectiveness of the Cartel Immunity Programme, a vital tool for cartel detection and prosecution, will be severely damaged.

Suggested Citation

  • Gorecki, Paul, 2017. "Sentencing in Ireland's First Bid-Rigging Cartel Case: An Appraisal," MPRA Paper 80787, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:80787
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/80787/1/MPRA_paper_80787.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gorecki, Paul K. & Maxwell, Sarah, 2012. "Sentencing in Criminal Cartel Cases in Ireland: the Duffy Judgment," Papers WP443, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    2. Martin, Stephen, 2010. "Industrial Organization in Context," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199291199.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gorecki, Paul, 2018. "A Recent Development in Civil Enforcement of Competition Law in Ireland: Section 14B Court Orders," MPRA Paper 89657, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Thomas Wein, 2020. "Cartel behavior and efficient sanctioning by criminal sentences," Working Paper Series in Economics 390, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    3. Gorecki, Paul, 2018. "Cartel Sentencing in Ireland: Criminal Standards of Proof, But Civil Sanctions," MPRA Paper 89817, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Gorecki, Paul, 2019. "Reforming the Regulation of Household Waste Collection Services in Ireland: the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Study," MPRA Paper 95000, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhiyong Liu & Yue Qiao, 2012. "Abuse of Market Dominance Under China’s 2007 Anti-monopoly Law: A Preliminary Assessment," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 41(1), pages 77-107, August.
    2. Tomohisa Okada & Takanori Adachi, 2013. "Third-Degree Price Discrimination, Consumption Externalities, and Market Opening," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 209-219, June.
    3. Roman Inderst & Frank Maier-Rigaud & Ulrich Schwalbe, 2013. "Quantifizierung von Schäden durch Wettbewerbsverstöße," Working Papers 2013-ECO-08, IESEG School of Management.
    4. Krishnendu Ghosh DASTIDAR & YANO Makoto, 2017. "In many emerging economies corruption, poor quality of information and poor governance lead to restricted entry. In this paper we analyze the determinants of the .height.of entry barrier in a developi," Discussion papers 17010, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    5. Christian Lennartz, 2016. "Rivalry between social and private landlords in local rental housing markets," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(11), pages 2293-2311, August.
    6. Heese, Jonas & Krishnan, Ranjani & Ramasubramanian, Hari, 2021. "The Department of Justice as a gatekeeper in whistleblower-initiated corporate fraud enforcement: Drivers and consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1).
    7. Gorecki, Paul, 2022. "Price Signalling and Private Motor Insurance in Ireland: A Breach of Competition Law?," MPRA Paper 115473, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf & Victor Tremblay, 2012. "Market Power and Technology," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 40(2), pages 139-146, March.
    9. Shahab Sharfaei & Jeen Wei Ong & Adedapo O. Ojo, 2022. "The Impact of Industry Forces on International SME Performance in Iran: The Mediating Effect of Competitive Advantage," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-16, October.
    10. Augusto Voltes-Dorta & Federico Inchausti-Sintes, 2021. "The spatial and quality dimensions of Airbnb markets," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(4), pages 688-702, June.
    11. Alexander M. Goulielmos, 2017. "“Containership Markets”: A Comparison with Bulk Shipping and a Proposed Oligopoly Model," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 67(2), pages 47-68, April-Jun.
    12. Stefano Colombo, 2016. "Mixed oligopolies and collusion," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 167-184, June.
    13. Alexandros M. Goulielmos, 2018. "“After End-2008 Structural Changes in Containership Market” and Their Impact on Industry’s Policy," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-21, November.
    14. Gorecki, Paul K. & Maxwell, Sarah, 2013. "The US and Ireland Approach to Sentencing in Cartel Cases: the Citroen Case," Papers WP447, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    15. Leonardo C. B. Cardoso & Carlos Frederico A. Uchôa & Williams Huamani & David R. Just & Raúl V. Gomez, 2022. "Price effects of spatial competition in retail fuel markets: the impact of a new rival nearby," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(1), pages 81-105, February.
    16. Gorecki, Paul, 2018. "Cartel Sentencing in Ireland: Criminal Standards of Proof, But Civil Sanctions," MPRA Paper 89817, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Silva, Felipe & Braga, Marcelo J. & Garcia, Joao, 2015. "Link Between R&D Intensity and Market Concentration: Analysis of Brazilian Corn and Soybean Seed Markets," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211563, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Okumura, Yasunori, 2016. "Individual transferable quotas in Cournot competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 315-321.
    19. Krishnendu Ghosh Dastidar & Makoto Yano, 2021. "Corruption, market quality, and entry deterrence in emerging economies," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 17(1), pages 101-117, March.
    20. Alexander M. Goulielmos & Giannis Sitzimis, 2012. "Measuring Market Concentration in the Aegean Ferry System," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 62(1-2), pages 7-27, January -.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bid-rigging cartel; commercial flooring; Competition Act 2002; unduly lenient; sentencing competition law; cartels.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:80787. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.