The UK’s High Court of Justice has applied the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Pfleiderer ruling to order defendants to disclose information from EU leniency applications, in damage claims that follow the European gas insulated switchgear cartel case.

For the first time, Pakistan’s Competition Commission (CCP) has granted full immunity to a leniency applicant, rewarding Siemens for cooperating in a cartel investigation.

An Italian court has confirmed the Antitrust Authority’s decision against freight forwarders for participating in a cartel, rejecting an appeal by defendants and ruling that a leniency applicant with the European Commission does not automatically qualify for leniency in other EU member countries.

Bonn’s district court has denied Pfleiderer access to key leniency documents from a cartel investigation by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO), reigniting the debate over whether victims of cartels should be entitled to access confidential information to strengthen their case.

Greece has introduced a new cartel leniency policy, replacing a 2006 programme that failed to convince cartelists to blow the whistle.

Plaintiffs in a US private antitrust lawsuit have criticised the European Commission for refusing to hand over a confidential decision made in the air cargo cartel investigation.

Under proposed changes to the UK’s competition regime, companies may soon be facing fines of up to 30 per cent of relevant turnover for antitrust violations.

Antitrust law observers on Wednesday questioned whether trustbusters were too quick to accept information gathered from leniency applications as fact when building cases against alleged cartelists. Ron Knox in New York

Austria’s Competition Authority has brought a case before the country’s Cartel Court alleging collusion between two companies in the cleaning supplies market.

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has set up a third division dedicated to cartel prosecution.