Fifth annual International Competition Network conference sends clear signal to step up and improve

Cape Town, South Africa, May 5, 2006 - The International CompetitionNetwork (ICN) ended its fifth annual conference today in Cape Town,South Africa, with techniques to improve competition law enforcement inareas such as cartels and multi-jurisdictional merger review, and byestablishing a new working group to address unilateral conduct.

Thisyear’s conference included an in-depth review of cartel investigationtechniques, with a focus on combating obstruction of justice, theinteraction of public and private enforcement, inter-agencycooperation, digital evidence gathering and the drafting andimplementation of an effective leniency program.

ICNSteering Group Chairman Ulf Böge said: “This conference has shown thatthe competition authorities around the world take the fight againstcartels very seriously. Combating cartels is all the more important fordeveloping economies as they suffer significantly from cartel harm. TheICN has facilitated a growing international consensus on enforcementtechniques, including searches and leniency programs.”

Other notable achievements this year included:

• New and updated material to enhance the quality and consistency of multi-jurisdictional merger review;


• Suggested Best Practices concerning the role of competitionenforcement and advocacy in relation to the telecommunications servicessector;


• The creation of a Business Outreach Toolkit to improve communication between enforcement agencies and private enterprise;


• The establishment of a new Working Group to examine members’approaches to business conduct by dominant firms (unilateral conduct);and


• Acontinuing focus on the unique challenges facing developing and newlyestablished competition authorities, including the sponsoring of twentyAfrican jurisdictions at the Conference by the competition authoritiesof South Africa and France.

TheICN is an international organization formed in 2001 consisting ofalmost one hundred competition authorities from 85 jurisdictions. TheICN provides antitrust agencies from developed and developing countrieswith a focused network for addressing practical antitrust enforcementand policy issues of common concern. It facilitates procedural andsubstantive convergence in antitrust enforcement through aresults-oriented agenda and informal, project-driven organization.