DOJ’s announcement of a safe harbor for voluntary self-disclosure in the context of acquisitions is the latest policy change in support of its effort to incentivize compliance, empower compliance professionals, and make compliance a cost-savings center.
It also heightens the importance of diligence and post-acquisition investigation to unearth acquired misconduct within the policy’s short, six-month window for self-disclosure.
While the policies have important similarities, how the M&A policy will interact with the Antitrust Division’s leniency policy raises more questions than answers because of certain differences in each policy’s requirements and benefits: