Private Enforcement of EC Competition Law
ISBN13: 9789041126139
Published: March 2007
Publisher: Kluwer Law International
Country of Publication: The Netherlands
Format: Hardback
Usually despatched in 1 to 3 weeks.
The European Commission’s recent green paper on damages actions for breach of EC antitrust rules stirred a debate across Europe on the need for legal reform that would encourage private plaintiffs to claim compensation for losses suffered as a result of anticompetitive conduct. Prominent in the wake of that initiative was the international conference convened by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg in April 2006, the papers and proceedings of which are presented in this important book.
Among the topics and issues raised and discussed here are the following:
- the 2001 Courage judgment of the European Court of Justice, in which the court decided
that everyone who suffers losses from a violation of arts. 81 or 82 EC is entitled to
compensation;
- relevance of the case law that contributes to general principles of European tort law;
- comparative analysis from the more comprehensive experience of national laws in the
United States, Germany, France, and Italy;
- calculation of damages;
- passing-on of losses sustained in an upstream market to customers in a downstream
market;
- procedural devices which may help to overcome the lack of implementation;
- duties of disclosure and the burden of proof;
- collective actions that may help to overcome the rational abstention of individuals;
- pitfalls of leniency programmes implemented by national competition authorities; and
- issues of jurisdiction and choice of law.
The lively debates that followed the presentations at the conference are also recorded here.
Although more discussion will be needed before a viable legal framework in this area begins to
emerge, these ground-breaking contributions by lawyers of various disciplines, jurists,
economists, academics, and European policymakers take a giant step forward. For lawyers,
academics, and officials engaged with this important area of international law, this book clearly
improves our understanding of the economic need and legal particularities which could
generate an effective European system of private antitrust litigation.
