Failure to prevent market abuse: a viable new corporate criminal offence?

The UK’s trailblazing ‘failure to prevent bribery’ offence ushered in a groundswell of corporate initiatives to stiffen up their anti-corruption regimes, and a similar offence has been introduced for tax evasion. But would it translate into an effective mechanism against market abuse? Neil Swift and Craig Hogg raise concerns.

Neil Swift (nswift@petersandpeters.com) is a partner, Craig Hogg (chogg@petersandpeters.com) an associate and Katie Jones a legal researcher, at business crime and corporate compliance specialists Peters & Peters.

In recent years, the idea of criminalising the ‘failure to prevent’ undesirable conduct has increasingly been seen as a panacea for prosecutors looking to crack down on economic crime. But what is the viability of such a regime in the area of market abuse?