The victim of an infringement of EU competition law can claim compensation from a subsidiary of a parent company, as long as it is proved that the two companies constituted a single economic unit at the time of the infringement, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruled in a judgement on Wednesday 6 October (Case C-882/19).
The European Commission had found in July 2016 that Daimler AG had violated antitrust rules because the German manufacturer had entered into arrangements on truck sales prices with fourteen other European truck manufacturers in the period from 1997 to 2011.
The Spanish company Sumal SL therefore brought an action against Mercedes Benz Trucks España SL (MBTE), a subsidiary of the Daimler AG group, seeking damages as a result of the cartel, because it had purchased two trucks from MBTE between 1997 and 1999. Its legal action was rejected by the Commercial Court of Barcelona on the grounds that MBTE was not directly affected by the Commission’s decision.
Sumal appealed to the Barcelona Provincial Court. The latter turned to the CJEU to find out whether it was possible to claim damages from a subsidiary whose parent company had been the subject of a European Commission decision for anti-competitive practices.
The Court considers that any person is entitled to claim compensation from a subsidiary, or “undertaking” within the meaning of Article 101 TFEU, for damage caused by anti-competitive practices.
The concept of an undertaking within the meaning of the Treaties refers to an economic unit which may consist of several natural or legal persons, entailing the application of the principle of joint and several liability between the various entities making up the economic unit.
However, it is up to the victim to prove that there were economic, organisational and legal links between the entities, according to the Court, at the time of the infringement found by the Commission. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)