Antitrust Enforcement in the European Union

European Union competition law bears some superficial similarities to U.S. antitrust law, but its derivation, goals and enforcement are very different than those of U.S. antitrust law. It is not necessary to describe those differences to state a few general propositions . First, EU competition law prohibits cartels and naked restraints of trade between competitors , especially price agreements and horizontal division of territories or customers. Second, EU competition law can be enforced in noncriminal proceedings by the European Commission ("EC"), which can and does assess substantial fines against firms which participate in prohibited agreements or practices.