Since I spent over 30 years with the Antitrust Division, US Department of Justice, people sometimes ask me how investigations get started. This blog post addresses one way: “loose lips sink ships” or put another way “CEO’s Say the Darndest Thing (and salespeople too).”

This is a story from down under. The Chairman of Australia’s Fortescue Metals, Andrew Forrest, was at a business dinner on March 24th when he expressed his frustration that his main rivals, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were driving down the prices of iron ore with excess production. Mr. Forrest declared:

“I’m absolutely happy to cap my production right now. All of us should cap our production now and we’ll find the iron ore price will go straight back up to $70, $80, $90 and the tax revenues which that will generate will build more schools, more hospitals, more roads, more of everything which Australia needs — universities etc. I’m happy to put that challenge out there: let’s cap our production right here and start acting like grown-ups.”(full story here)

OOPS. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (which has the great shorthand name: A-Triple C) started an investigation. The ACCC just announced it would no take action against Mr. Forrest because of the “context and circumstances” of his remarks.  The ACCC Chairman Rod Sims warned: “However, it is important that the business community understands that public statements calling for competitors to agree to limit production or to raise prices may constitute a serious cartel ­offence.”  (full statement here).

In the United States an offer to fix prices, even if not accepted, can and has been, prosecuted by the Antitrust Division as mail and/or wire fraud.  And the Federal Trade Commission has charged price-fixing/bid rigging solicitations as violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act. That is not to say that either agency would have charged Mr. Forrest for the remarks he made, but with different circumstances, prosecutions have been brought for what are called “invitations to collude.” (A Sherman Act prosecution requires an actual agreement between the competitors, so unless an offer to collude is accepted, it can be prosecuted, but not under the Sherman Act.)  Mr. Forrest’s statement was also problematic because if competitors did raise prices, even if they had already been planning to do so, suspicion of collusion would be high.  And civil law suits may well have followed.

I am going to be making a presentation on this very subject with my friend Barbara Sicalides at the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE’s) annual Compliance & Ethics Institute (October 4-7^th) in Las Vegas. This is the SCCE’s primary education and networking event for professionals working in the Compliance and Ethics profession across all industries around the world. Sessions at the 2015 conference will offer the latest compliance information on hot topics and current events.   Our session is titled:  CEO’s (and salespeople too) Say The Darndest Things: How an Ill-Advised Statement or Email Can Start an Antitrust Investigation or Lawsuit – Robert E. Connolly, Partner, GeyerGorey LLP; Barbara T. Sicalides, Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP.  We will have numerous examples, sometimes funny, sometimes not so funny and very expensive, of how companies and individuals have found themselves under investigation and/or charged with antitrust violations for things that simply never should have been said/written.  It should be a good session on how to counsel the unsuspecting of the potential perils of off the cuff remarks.

Hope to see you there.

Thanks for reading.