Is Amnesty Plus More Successful in Fighting Multimarket Cartels? An Exploratory Analysis

Abstract

This experiment shows how different levels of fines in three antitrust policies—no leniency (NL), standard leniency (LP), and amnesty plus (AP)—can deter multimarket cartels. With a low fine, AP significantly increases multimarket cartels and leads to higher prices. With a high fine, it has the same effect on collusion as do other policies. With regard to one-market cartels, AP decreases cartel stability relative to LP. With a high fine, it leads to more reporting than does LP, before any investigation and after a first cartel conviction. Higher fines also lead to higher prices in NL and LP, but not higher than in AP.