Chapter 4 analyses corporate culture in East Asia with a view to understanding how Confucian cultural norms can inform efforts to promote compliance with competition law. It suggests that practices to secure compliance among commercial operators can usefully be tailored to takes account of cultural characteristics. This implies a need to consider the legacy of Confucian ethics, which has had a profound influence on the organizational psychology and behaviour of commercial entities in the region. The importance of that legacy suggests that compliance will not be achieved within firms solely on the basis of the external legal environment, an environment in which deterrence-oriented factors such as sanctions and the threat of detection play a central role. Beyond traditional tools, more attention should be given to the internal moral and social environment, and to shaping the logic of appropriateness within a given firm. A compliance culture can thus be constructed on the basis of elements such as moral commitment, Eastern-style education, the cultivation of virtue, and the constructive convergence of the interests of the enterprise and those of its employees.

In Spain, sanctions can be of three types: (1) administrative, (2) civil or (3) criminal. The first two are the most important while the third is residual and scarce, although there has been a long-running debate, especially in the academic sphere, about the convenience of greater criminalization. (1) Competition authorities can impose administrative sanctions, mainly fines, on infringers, both on companies and their directors. Exclusion of public tenders can also be imposed on entities that have been sanctioned (final sanction) for anticompetitive behaviour. (2) Commercial courts can award compensation to victims for antitust damages. These awards are always compensatory and not punitive, so they cannot exceed the damage caused. (3) Although there is no specific cartel offence, some anticompetitive conduct can also fall into some criminal types. Although the Spanish Criminal Code has since 1848 had provisions intended to penalise individuals who carry out conduct aiming at altering or manipulating prices, recourse to criminal proceedings for the sanction of these behaviours has been highly exceptional. The current trend is towards intensifying administrative and civil sanctions (higher corporate fines, more frequent and harsher fines for directors and exclusions of public tenders, while enhancing award of damages).

Caught between the traditional classifications of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ orientation, or ‘liberal’ and ‘coordinated’ corporate governance models, the French approach borrows from both without being firmly attached to either. The French system of corporate governance offers a hybrid model, combining the long-standing maintenance of some entrenched features of French capitalism (employee representation on the board, notably), with an innovative approach to sustainable governance. This chapter examines the corporate law and corporate governance structures of large French companies, including new compliance and due diligence programmes imposed upon companies and their suppliers.