The American Corporate Counsel Association (ACCA) has called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to intervene in the fight for recognition of in-house privilege in Europe.

In a hard-hitting letter to the chairman of the US Federal Trade Commission the chair of Acca, William B Lytton, claimed that the European Commission's (EC) refusal to recognise in-house privilege interfered with the ability of multi-national corporates to comply with US antitrust law.

In the letter written last November, Lytton called on the chair of the FTC to take up the issue with his counterpart in the EC.

"In many situations where language differences are a fact of life, it is often important to provide complex information in writing," Lytton said.

"Failure of European in-house counsel and employees to comprehend fully the advice of US counsel could have a substantial impact on compliance and co-operation by the company and its employees."

Lytton also attacked the EC competition commissioner Mario Monti for his statement before the European Parliament claiming that if the right of secrecy is extended to in-house lawyers it will make investigations impossible and will weaken the EC's ability to investigate competition authorities.

The president of ACCA, Frederick Krebs, confirmed that ACCA was in on-going discussions with both the FTC and the US Department of Justice. Krebs said that there had also been an "informal connection" between the FTC and the EU.

The European Company Lawyers Association (ECLA) has been campaigning for privilege between in-house lawyers and their clients for 20 years, since a decision by the European Court of Justice that correspondence between a client and its in-house solicitors is not protected from seizure in competition inquiries.

This applies to all in-house lawyers, including those who benefit from legal privilege on a national level.

Last year ECLA won the backing of the UK's Department of Trade and Industry and the Confederation of British Industry to lobby the EC for in-house concessions.