Vrcek, Bojana --- "Overview of Europe" [2010] ELECD 755; in Foer, A. Albert; Cuneo, W. Jonathan (eds), "The International Handbook on Private Enforcement of Competition Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: The International Handbook on Private Enforcement of Competition Law

Editor(s): Foer, A. Albert; Cuneo, W. Jonathan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848448773

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: Overview of Europe

Author(s): Vrcek, Bojana

Number of pages: 19

Extract:

15 Overview of Europe
Bojana Vrcek1


Introduction
Private antitrust litigation in Europe is undergoing an important evolution toward the
provision of actions for damages, but there is significant variation in practice among the
nations, even where laws already exist. Almost none of the European jurisdictions have
mechanisms in place to make damages actions effective. None of the EU Member States
has active private enforcement for collective redress. Rules regarding access to evidence,
pre-trial discovery, and statutes of limitations are mixed, but overall are not very helpful
for private antitrust claimants. The concrete success on the EU level has been achieved
due to steady efforts made by the European Commission, which recognized that com-
petition policy is more than imposing fines and breaking cartels.2 Fines do not deliver
compensation for the harm suffered by victims, and therefore effective private remedies
are needed for redress to be awarded by the national courts.
The European Commission supported an external study3 which analyzed whether
and which national legal orders provide for private damages actions. The study found
that between May 1, 2004, and the end of 2007, 96 damages actions were filed in the
EU Member States. Those were concentrated in only ten Member States. Sixty-one of
those cases related to vertical restrictions, and none of the 96 resulted in damages being
awarded. On the other hand, between January, 1990, and November, 2008, there were
516 `formal official investigations' of suspected international cartels, with the most
affected sales occurring in the ...