Following an announcement in November 2020 that it has entered into partnership with eDiscovery leader Reveal to create a ‘suite of ground-breaking AI solutions’ DLA Piper announced today (15 March) the launch of Aiscension, a service designed to find cartel risks within corporations by analysing large volumes of disparate data. The service combines DLA Piper’s legal know-how with technology from Reveal, which last year aquired NexLP. NexLP’s artificial intelligence platform turns disparate, unstructured data – including email communications, business chat messages, contracts and legal documents – into structured insights.
Despite many companies having compliance systems in place, there remains a constant risk that any business (or its subsidiaries) can become involved in cartel activity.
Ilan Sherr, legal director at DLA Piper and executive director of Aiscension comments: “The consequences of being proven to be involved in cartel related activity are very serious. An infringement can involve large fines, criminal sanctions and lasting damage to a firm’s brand and reputation. An investigation alone can have serious consequences, so prevention is much better than cure . The efficiency and reduction in cost that Aiscension brings to the market opens up a whole new way for companies to view and mitigate cartel risk. Aiscension provides our clients with the ability to identify, at an early stage, whether they are at risk of being involved in potentially illegal activity. This can enable them to take appropriate action at the earliest opportunity, and even prevent any damage from being done.”
The service will analyse data that portends towards price fixing, market sharing, bid rigging, information exchange and collective boycotts.
An analysis of competition fines since January 2000 for the EU, UK, and US competition authorities shows there have been fines impacting over 1,100 entities and totalling over €43 billion – in these three jurisdictions alone.
DLA Piper will be offering the Aiscension service as part of its enhanced legal offering named Law&.
Commenting on the launch, Simon Levine, Global Co-CEO, DLA Piper said: “We continue to build on the momentum of introducing bold and innovative products and services through our enhanced legal offering Law&, which directly addresses our client’s challenges and allows them to seize opportunities. Our collaboration with Reveal provides companies with the ability to greatly reduce the risk of being caught up in damaging cartel related activity and revolutionises how they approach prevention. Aiscension is yet another example of the market changing products we are developing.”