The Irish Central Criminal Court finds guilty a businessman involved in illegal prices fixing (Manning)

Under Irish competition law certain offences (in essence infringements analogous to infringements of Articles 81 and 82 EC) attract criminal sanctions. Last February saw the criminal conviction of a businessman involved in the illegal fixing of prices in the motor vehicle sector, the first such conviction under the new regime created by the 2002 Irish Competition Act (See also Orla Lynskey, An Irish Criminal Court imposes criminal sanctions to a cartel in the oil market (Dalton and Corrib Oil), e-Competitions, February 2007-I, n° 13215). I. Summary of the case On 9 February 2007 the Irish Central Criminal Court handed down a 12-month suspended prison sentence (i. e. the sentence is imposed but not served) and imposed a fine of 30,000 EUR on Cork businessman Denis Manning for his role