Criminal and administrative responsibility of enterprises, especially in the area of cartel law, data protection law and banking supervision

Abstract

In the law of the European Union, liability for (administrative) fines (Geldbußen) has developed as a special sanction model for regulatory offences, first in the area of cartel law, now of data protection and banking supervisiory law, too. The criminal law systems for judicial persons in the EU member states are oriented towards the EU system of enterprise liability. This leads to problems, especially with regard to the sentencing and to procedural guarantees. The emerging path of convergence despite different sanction models – responsibility of enterprises versus responsability of judicial persons - should be continued in view of the punitive nature of the (administrative) fine.