This article explains how considering the systemic character of influencemarket corruption can help the Council of Europe and its Member States in their fightagainst trading in influence. By applying article 12 of the Council of Europe’s CriminalConvention on Corruption on two recent cases in the Netherlands and France, it is beingtested whether the provision provides an effective solution for scrutinising the trading ininfluence phenomenon. Both cases provide an example of the trading in influence phenomenon,which is symptomatic in western influence markets and which has implicationsfar greater than the ones immediately apparent.