Looking to 2021: managing antitrust risk and maintaining global compliance

With the global pandemic, changing trade patterns, technological innovation and developments in home-working, 2020 has been a year like no other.  Businesses have had to respond quickly to evolving circumstances under significant resource and time pressure, propelling risk awareness and compliance efforts into the spotlight. 

This is set to continue in 2021, and today we published our 11th edition of 10 key themes in global antitrust , which explores a number of developments that will affect businesses planning deals and managing antitrust risk in 2021, including the following:

• With sustainability a key focus for many, businesses seeking to achieve sustainability goals through collaboration will need to keep antitrust risk in mind, especially when working with competitors;
• Antitrust compliance remains crucial in the structuring and re-organisation of supply chains in response to the events of 2020 and businesses must be aware of diverging approaches and practices of enforcers around the globe; one size does not fit all;
• Transformations in home-working and the creation of the ‘hybrid’ workplace bring with them new challenges for employers, not least in terms of oversight and management issues.  It is imperative that businesses ensure their antitrust compliance and whistleblowing programmes remain effective and reflective of new uses of technology and unusual working environments; and
• Internal and external investigations are evolving, with some authorities using more expansive and intrusive investigative techniques, resulting in potentially increased risk of document disclosure to authorities in other jurisdictions or to third-party claimants.  Businesses will need a co-ordinated response in order to maximise protection of their procedural rights of defence in the face of increased multi-jurisdictional and synchronised antitrust damages litigation.

Throughout the year we will be holding a number of events to discuss the implications of these and other developments. If you are interested in joining our discussions, do get in touch.