REVIEW OF LENIENCY PROGRAMS IN THE BRICS COUNTRIES (WORKING GROUP ON CARTELS, 2023)

Cartels are recognized worldwide as one of the most dangerous forms of restriction of competition. An effective mechanism for detecting such violations, including in the BRICS countries, is the leniency program.

The review is a large-scale and in-depth analysis of leniency programs in all BRICS countries. It describes the procedure for submitting an application for mitigation of liability and its withdrawal, as well as the specifics of consideration by the antimonopoly authority of such applications and the procedure for mitigating liability.

Besides, the review highlights the issues of handling confidential information. A separate section of the document concerns penalties in the BRICS countries for its disclosure. This approach helps to increase the level of trust between the company and the regulator.

In addition, the document contains information about the largest and the most precedent cartels identified by the BRICS competition agencies through leniency programs over the past 5 years.