Criminal cartels

On 1 April, legislative reform removed the need to prove dishonesty from the criminal cartel offence. This means the offence becomes more conduct-based—whether the accused agreed with others to enter into a cartel to price-fix or bid rig. Writing in this week’s NLJ, David Corker, partner, Corker Binning, discusses the implications of this, and concludes “the need to prove that an accused had a guilty state of mind remains and this is likely to remain as controversial an issue as it was when dishonesty was relevant”.