The Law on the Protection of Competition (the "Competition Law") has put in place a strict and deterrent fining regime, coupled with a leniency program for companies. The secondary legislation specifying the details of the leniency mechanism, namely the Regulation on Active Cooperation for Discovery of Cartels (the "Leniency Regulation"), was enacted on 15 February 2009. A guideline that supplements the enforcement of the Leniency Regulation was published in April 2013.
The leniency program is only available for cartelists. It does not apply to other forms of antitrust infringement. The definition of cartel encompasses price fixing, customer, supplier or market sharing, restricting output or placing quotas and bid rigging.
The Leniency Regulation sets out detailed and strict conditions for benefiting from immunity/reduction. A cartelist may apply for leniency until the full-fledged investigation report is officially served. Depending on the application order, there may be total immunity from, or reduction of, a fine with the exception of the 'ring-leader', who can only benefit from a second degree reduction of fines.
