A recent report criticizing the prosecution records against individuals of the United Kingdom’s main investigatory and enforcement agencies downplays the severity of the sanctions those agencies have imposed, McGuireWoods London partner Matthew Hall told Compliance Week in a Feb. 23, 2024, story.
Compliance Week reported that Spotlight on Corruption, a campaign group, published a report finding that agencies including the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the antitrust/competition law regulator, rarely prosecute board-level executives over their companies’ misconduct.
Hall, an antitrust lawyer and member of McGuireWoods’ Government Investigations & White Collar Litigation Department, said the report’s claim that executives who breach competition law “rarely face any consequence at all” is untrue and unfair, and the CMA recently obtained director disqualifications against individuals at companies of varying sizes.
“This is a significant sanction. Where imposed, director disqualification importantly bans an individual from being concerned in any way in the management of a company generally and not just from being a director of a company. The risk of director disqualification is taken seriously and always referred to in U.K. competition law compliance programs and training,” Hall said.