Cornerstones of effective leniency programmes the latin american experience1

Abstract

At the very dawn of antitrust history, the main issue was whether cartels2 were pernicious for society3. Unlike today, at that time cartels were formalised by means of written agreements4 and their parties had no intention to conceal their economic objectives, but focused instead on arguing that such agreements were either socially neutral or even desirable.5 In other cases,agreements between competitors were fostered by the intervention of the government in the economy.