The Provincial Court of Leon in Spain asks the Court of Justice of the European Union to interpret the temporal scope of the Directive (2014/104) governing compensation to victims of anti-competitive practices (Case C-267/20).
Convicted in July 2016 for participating in a multi-manufacturer cartel (see EUROPE 11597/1), Volvo and DAF Trucks have appealed against a Spanish court ruling that ordered them to pay compensation to a company that purchased three trucks in 2006 and 2007. According to them, the action was time-barred, as the claim for compensation, filed on 1 April 2018, had exceeded the one-year time limit set out in the Spanish Civil Code. They argue that this deadline should apply from 19 July 2016, when the European Commission issued a statement announcing its decision to sanction the cartel.
Advocate General Athanasios Rantos agrees that the temporal scope of the Directive is limited, as EU law distinguishes between, on the one hand, substantive provisions, which do not apply retroactively to ‘acquired situations’ prior to their entry into force, and, on the other hand, procedural provisions, which apply in the event of an action brought after the entry into force of the Directive (26 December 2014).
According to the lawyer, the five-year limitation period set out in the Directive does not apply to the claim for compensation which, despite being submitted after the entry into force of both the Directive and the Spanish transposition provisions (26 May 2017), relates to facts that predate the Spanish law transposing the Directive.
Nevertheless, the Spanish national provisions adopted to comply with the Directive’s provision on the power of judicial assessment of damages are procedural, Rantos believes. They can be applied to damages suffered as a result of a violation of competition law which ended before the entry into force of the Spanish transposition legislation in an action for damages brought after the entry into force of that legislation.
As regards the length of the limitation period, the Advocate General points out that the one-year period provided for in Spanish law is much shorter than the five-year period provided for in the Directive. According to him, this limitation period began - under Spanish law - on the day of publication of the Commission’s decision in the Official Journal of the EU (6 April 2018).
The action for damages brought by the buyer of the three trucks is therefore not time-barred.
See the conclusions: https://bit.ly/2XZDD5W (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)