Browsing by Subject "Damages Actions"

The competitiveness in and of the internal market of the EU is one of the main objectives of the Treaty of the European Union. In the EU, private enforcement is seen as a complimentary mechanism of public enforcement to attain the goals of competition law policy. Following the publication of Regulation 1/2003, the private enforcement of EU competition law has gained steady pace for development. During the past decade multiple legal instruments have been produced by the EU legislators to facilitate actions for damages, however, with limited accuracy and clarity for the victims of competition law infringements. The latest legislative piece, the Damages Directive, does not provide harmonization of the procedures leading up to the quantification phase or the methods for quantification .The procedural elements of the actions for damages are greatly left to the discretion of the national courts as long as the application of the twin EU principles of effectiveness and equality are ensured. The lack of clear guidelines in these aspects of the damages actions often create ambiguity and contrasting outcomes in different member states. Furthermore, the interplay between the tasks assigned to EU competition law combined with the application of “concept of effectiveness” often puts the parties in confusing situations in the hands of the national courts. This study focuses on the possibility of a victim of competition law infringement to effectively bring an action for damages by demonstrating the shortcomings of the various elements of the claim process and assesses whether the legal instruments and applicable other sources of law provide sufficient relief for the claimants. Furthermore, the policy choices of the EU are assessed to their compatibility from the potential victim’s and defendant’s perspective. The methods of quantification, which is the last phase of the claim is also reviewed from both economic and legal perspective. regarding The claim friendliness of the processes is also reviewed through its application, which remains in the hands of recent national case law. The study concludes that the policy choices are the main reason behind the inefficiencies and that effective application of competition law can be found by a more concentrated approach between the deterrence and corrective tasks assigned to private enforcement and advises the claimants to pursue a number of procedural reliefs.