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know who to contact and in what form when concrete situations of
conflict arise.
Constant Update, Contact Points for Advice and Training
Obviously it is not enough just to put down a strategy on paper.
Where a manual is made available to staff, it should be reviewed regu-
larly. There should also be a clearly identified contact point where
advice can be sought by staff in case of doubts about the compatibili-
ty of certain types of behavior or agreements with EU competition law.
Training on applicable EU competition rules also plays an impor-
tant role. Many undertakings already offer their staff, in particular
newcomers, an ambitious training program.
Monitoring / Auditoring
Monitoring and auditing can serve as effective tools to prevent and
detect anti-competitive behavior inside the undertaking. Monitoring,
for instance by verifying the undertaking’s own behavior in the com-
petitive process in bidding markets, would mean a more preventive
approach.
Auditing would tend to discover anti-competitive behavior only
after it had already occurred.
What to do if the Strategy Has Failed to Ensure Full
Compliance?
An effective compliance strategy will be expected to simply prevent
any infringement from happening.Yet it may prove insufficient to ensure
compliance, and there may nevertheless be instances of wrongdoing.
Stopping the Infringement at the Earliest Possible Stage.
In such
case, the existence of a compliance strategy – on condition that it
incorporates appropriate reporting mechanisms – will allow mishaps to
be nipped in the bud.
It will enable the undertaking to take appropriate measures with-
out delay, so that any potential infringement is swiftly brought to an
end. This will contribute to limiting damage to competition and mini-
mizing the undertaking’s exposure.
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