This article – which can be found here – provides an overview of private competition enforcement developments during the past year in the three EU jurisdictions where most such actions are brought. The paper is quite straightforward.
Section 2 discusses the legislative developments in each of these jurisdictions, with a focus on the implementation of the EU Damages Directive and on collective redress (i.e. class actions). This section also discusses other recurring topics in follow-on damages litigation, such as the passing-on defence, access to evidence, standard of proof and limitation periods.
Section 3 discusses stand-alone damages claims. It concludes that stand-alone claims are rarely successful – with the potential exception of ‘quasi-follow’ on claims, i.e. claims that reflect infringement decisions but which are not addressed to the infringing parties sanctioned by competition authorities, such as in the various instances of credit card litigation I described in previous emails. It further finds that abuse actions (i.e. complaints against powerful companies) are more common than stand-alone claims based on collusive practices.
