Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement And Reform Act Of 2004 Extension Act

Floor Speech

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2675) to amend title II of the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act of 2004 to extend the operation of such title for a 1-year period ending June 22, 2010.

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation extends by 1 year expiring provisions of the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act of 2004, otherwise known as ACPERA. ACPERA not only increases maximum criminal penalties under the Sherman Act for hardcore antitrust violations but also created whistleblower incentives to spur antitrust cartel detection.

Portions of the 2004 act are set to expire in 2 weeks on June 22. This 1-year extension preserves the penalties and incentives currently in place, while affording Congress time to explore possible improvements to the 2004 act.

I am pleased to have as cosponsors of this bill the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, JOHN CONYERS, as well as full committee Ranking Member LAMAR SMITH and Courts Subcommittee Ranking Member HOWARD COBLE.

Cartel violations are some of the worst crimes perpetrated on the American consumer; yet they are too often crimes we cannot see, as all of this criminal activity takes place in secret meetings behind closed doors. In the previous bill, we were talking about crime in the streets, and now we are talking about crime in the suites.

Price-fixing cartels can go undetected for years, possibly forever. With hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars worth of unlawful profits at stake, these criminal cartels are very effective at finding ways to keep their actions secret. But 5 years ago, Congress gave the Justice Department's Antitrust Division a new weapon to attack this secrecy head-on. ACPERA promotes the detection and prosecution of illegal cartel behavior by giving participants in a price-fixing cartel powerful incentives to report the cartel to the Justice Department and cooperate in the prosecution of the cartel.

Before ACPERA, the Justice Department could offer leniency to a coconspirator who exposed a cartel and helped bring it to justice. But the cooperating party remained fully liable to paying treble damages to the cartel's victims and potentially exposed to having to pay the entire amount.

ACPERA addressed this shortcoming in the criminal leniency program by also limiting the cooperating party's exposure to liability with respect to civil litigation. ACPERA empowers the Justice Department to limit civil liability of a cooperating party to single damages, not treble. The remaining coconspirators, however, remain jointly and severally liable for all damages. In this way, Mr. Speaker, the act strikes a carefully crafted balance, encouraging the cartel members to turn on each other while ensuring full compensation to the victims.

The positive impact of this law cannot be overstated. In the first half of this year, ACPERA has aided the antitrust division in securing jail sentences in 85 percent of its individual prosecutions and over $900 million in criminal fines.

As chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, I want to ensure that the Justice Department has all the tools it needs to continue its excellent work, which is to protect consumers against price-fixing cartels.

Again, I thank the bipartisan coalition of Members who have joined me as cosponsors in this very important legislation. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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