Our Competition Commission is pushing this one, very bad, idea
‘If the commission fishes for big fish all we will get is huge legal bills and multiyear delays in negligible outcomes as our regulators are stalled by obstructionist corporate lawyers. Is it really worth it?’
Hong Kong’s competition watchdog should seek jail sentences against offenders whenever possible, according to the new chief executive of the anti-trust regulator.
- SCMP, November 6
Let me tell you how this relationship of regulator and prison sentence works in the United States, from where our new Competition Commission boss, Brent Snyder hails.
I call it a form of blackmail. Any regulator in the US, be it in competition, securities, or banking, frequently finds it difficult to put together a case that will stand up in court against a corporation. Hard evidence is required and mostly the regulator does not have it.
Thus he instead tells the directors and executives of the corporation he targets that the government will institute personal criminal action against them and ask for prison sentences.
There is a way out of this fate of course. If only these directors and executives will agree to have the company make a large payment “in compensation” for their alleged misdeeds, then the regulator will “ring-fence” them out of any personal criminal action and they need not trouble themselves.