TRIGGERING INSPECTIONS EX OFFICIO: MOVING BEYOND A PASSIVE EU CARTEL POLICY

The implementation of leniency programs is considered a successboth at a EU Community level and in individual member states.The paper discusses the value of ex officio investigations forcartel detection in light of leniency and complaint-based cases.Are ex officio investigations still needed? Should a competitionauthority concentrate its scarce resources exclusively on theprosecution of leniency or complaint-based cases or follow aproactive market monitoring policy? It is argued that investigationstriggered ex officio are an important complementary enforcementtool to the other passive instruments available to a competitionauthority. A bottom-up methodology for triggering inspectionsbased on economic criteria is presented allowing for a moreproactive cartel policy.