Compliance & Audits

Companies must ensure that they comply with antitrust rules.

Infringing competition rules may not only lead to very substantial administrative fines (up to 10 % of the world-wide turnover of a company), but also to huge civil damages (sometimes in the millions, or hundreds of millions, of euros) and sometimes even to criminal sanctions (up to several years of imprisonment for the individuals involved in cartel practices).

bureau Brandeis Paris lawyers rely in particular on their considerable experience as competition authority officials to design and conduct both compliance programs and antitrust audits.

An antitrust compliance program is the internal business policy put in place to educate the directors and employees of a company to avoid risks of anticompetitive conduct.

Antitrust audits seek to uncover whether a company participated in an antitrust infringement or is a victim of such an infringement.

bureau Brandeis Paris advises corporations and financial institutions on how to mitigate their regulatory compliance risks and respond to corporate incidents and crisis.

We are particularly well placed to assist companies in implementing compliance programs and audits as:

• We have the antitrust knowledge and credibility vis-à-vis board members, managing and senior directors and executives, sales directors and employees to carry out efficient and easy-to-follow programs;
• We have unique experience in identifying and assessing antitrust risks, potential infringements and best courses of action;
• We have the flexibility to adapt our compliance and audit methods and programs to the specific needs of the companies we advise, from multinationals to start-ups, in the course of on-going business or as part of a due diligence process;
• We can organize both on-line and on-site interviews, trainings, seminars, interviews and mock dawn raids. We can work with automated compliance software when appropriate. We offer continued guidance and hotline services to answer questions from general counsels and in-house counsels;
• We have the knowledge and firepower to conduct compliance programs and audits at a pan-European level with bureau Brandeis Amsterdam;
• In cases where the compliance program or the audit lead to the conclusion that the company may be the victim of a cartel infringement, we have specific expertise in assisting the company in obtaining that the infringement be put to an end and that damages be claimed.