Brussels, 11/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 11 June, the European Commission adopted a draft directive on how citizens and companies can claim damages when they are victims of infringements of the EU antitrust rules, such as cartels and abuses of a dominant market position. It also published a report to help member states' judges determine the exact amount of compensation to be granted, avoiding overcompensation (see EUROPE 10863).
The European Court of Justice has recognised the right of all victims of antitrust infringements to be compensated for the harm suffered. However, due to procedural obstacles and legal uncertainty, only few of these victims actually manage to obtain compensation. This situation particularly affects consumers and SMEs, which most often do not engage in legal action for reparation of their harm. Indeed, in only 25% of all antitrust infringement decisions taken by the Commission in the past seven years did the victims seek to obtain compensation. Moreover, national rules vary widely across Europe and, as a result, the chances of victims obtaining compensation greatly depend on which member state they happen to live in. To remove these difficulties, the Commission wants to harmonise compensation rules in order to ensure that all victims have a solid base of certain minimum rights and effectively obtain compensation through the courts once an infringement has been investigated found and sanctioned by a competent authority (usually national and EU competition authorities). The provisions of the proposed directive would apply to the legal actions which are available in member states. In parallel, the Commission has adopted a recommendation encouraging member states to set up collective redress mechanisms in order to improve access to justice for victims of violations of EU law in general, including competition rules. The suggested measures are as follows: a) national courts will have the power to order companies to disclose evidence when victims claim compensation, b) decisions of national competition authorities finding an infringement will automatically constitute proof before national courts of all member states that the infringement occurred, c) rules on limitation periods, i.e. the period of time within which victims can bring an action for damages, will be clarified. In particular, this will ensure that victims can effectively claim damages once an infringement has been found by a competition authority, d) the liability rules in cases where price increases due to an infringement are “passed on” along the distribution or supply chain will be clarified. In practice, this will ensure that those who suffered the harm in the end will be the ones receiving compensation, e) rules to facilitate consensual settlements will be put in place so as to allow a faster and less costly resolution of disputes.
The draft legislation will now be submitted to the Council of Ministers and European Parliament and will need to be transposed into member states' legislation within two years of coming into force. (FG/transl.fl)