Compensation and the Damages Directive
30 Pages Posted: 2 Sep 2015
Date Written: September 1, 2015
Abstract
The EU Damages Directive came into force in December 2014. One of its objectives is to ensure the effective private enforcement of competition law by facilitating damages claims in the courts of the EU Member States. This paper looks closely at the Directive’s compensation goal and the key arrangements that are to encourage victims to seek redress in the courts. The paper uses a simple framework to demonstrate that the Damages Directive is unlikely to foster compensation because it fails to create incentives for harmed individuals to commence legal action. If more compensation claims are desired, the Member States should devise a framework for private antitrust actions that goes beyond the Directive’s remit by, for example, allowing class actions.
Keywords: Private antitrust enforcement, damages action, Damages Directive, EU competition law
JEL Classification: K41, K42
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation