Clifford Chance

Head of Criminal Enforcement in the DOJ Antitrust Division Lays Out Leniency Program Priorities at the International Cartel Workshop

March 2, 2020

On February 19, 2020, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard A. Powers of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division opened the 13th International Cartel Workshop with a speech on leniency. Powers is only the fourth person to serve as the Division's head of criminal enforcement since the leniency policy was instituted, and his tenure will be defined in part by how the Division copes with the growing challenges to the leniency system. While the speech mainly reflected longstanding policy, Powers' remarks provided new insight into how the Division is implementing recent policy changes aimed at incentivizing companies to create and maintain robust antitrust compliance regimes. Powers also addressed the ballooning costs of participating in the leniency program, which arise from the increasingly complex and international nature of many cartel investigations and which could continue to grow if a key damages-reduction provision is allowed to expire this June. Unfortunately, the remarks lacked specifics on how the Division plans to rein in these costs. Given the extraterritorial application of US antitrust laws, companies around the world should take note of Powers' remarks as a window into the Division's thinking on these issues.

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