Foreword

• Pages: 10-11

ix

FOREWORD

The Antitrust Law Section of the American Bar Association is proud

to present this first edition of the Antitrust Cartel Leniency and

Sentencing Handbook.

The Leniency Program is one of the U.S. Department of Justice

(DOJ) Antitrust Division’s most important tools for combating criminal

antitrust cartel conduct domestically and across the globe. It allows for a

complete pass from prosecution for self-reporting companies and

executives who qualify under the program, in exchange for valuable

insider cooperation against other conspirators. Other DOJ components

now have self-disclosure programs, but the Antitrust Division’s Leniency

Program was the first, and the carrot and stick enforcement strategy of

coupling the Antitrust Division’s Leniency Program with severe

sanctions provided decades of cartel enforcement results. Since the

inception of the modern Leniency Program in 1993, leniency has

proliferated around the globe and led to increased cartel enforcement and

penalties in many countries.

The Antitrust Division’s Leniency Program has continued to expand

in reach and impact, and attorneys and their clients have sought more

guidance on the Program’s contours and the steps needed to satisfy

leniency requirements. The Antitrust Division answered calls for

transparency by providing leniency guidance in speeches for decades. In

2008, the Antitrust Division published Frequently Asked Questions

About the Antitrust Division’s Leniency Program (FAQs) and Model

Leniency Letters, and updated those FAQs in 2017, and again recently in

2022.

The Corporate and Individual Leniency Policies went untouched for

almost three decades, until the Antitrust Division announced updates to

its Leniency Policy in April 2022, and integrated the leniency policies

into the Justice Manual. The 2022 changes were the most significant

since 1993. This handbook addresses those changes, as well as the

Antitrust Division’s 2019 compliance guidance, however, much remains

to be seen about how they will be implemented by the Antitrust Division

and received by the antitrust bar and business community.

Now in its fourth decade, this is a critical time for leniency. There is

much debate in the antitrust bar about whether leniency has become a

victim of its own success and whether the costs of leniency now