Report on International Co-operation in Competition Enforcement

The Report was drafted through a collaborative process involving both the Organisations for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and International Competition Network (ICN).

Key findings

The Report outlines key aspects of the current state of international enforcement co-operation between competition authorities. The key findings regarding the past and current status of international enforcement co-operation are:

• There has been an overall increase in international enforcement co‑operation across all enforcement areas;
• Authorities use various legal bases for enforcement co-operation, although there are some long-standing legal barriers to effective international enforcement co‑operation;
• Authorities derive significant benefits from international enforcement co-operation, regardless of their respective size and level of maturity;
• Enforcement co-operation within regions (including through specific regional arrangements) is one of the most significant and successful types of co-operation for authorities, including for those outside highly developed and mature regional enforcement co-operation arrangements; and
• Key challenges and limitations to effective enforcement co-operation remain (e.g. legal limitations, resourcing, co-ordination/timing, trust/reciprocity and other practical issues such as language and time differences) and while some are an inherent and ongoing part of engaging in international enforcement co-operation (such as managing limited resources).

The findings are enriched by case studies of successful cooperation, examples of cooperation agreements and provisions, ICN and OECD resources and tools for cooperation, as well as an overview of several regional cooperation networks.