Legal Development
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1302000408 |
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Legal Development |
20 MJ 4 (2013) 623
LEGAL DEVELOPMENT
e European Commission Proposal for a Directive on Antitrust Damages: A First
Assessment
Caroline Cau man*
§1. INTRODUC TION
On 11June 2013 the European Commis sion adopted a package of instruments to faci litate
damages claims by v ictims of antitrust damages.
e main element of the package is a proposal for a directive on certain rules
governing actions for damages under nat ional law for infri ngements of the competition
law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union.1 In addition the
package includes a Communication from the Commission on quantifying harm2 and
a Commission Sta Working Paper containing a pract ical guide on quantify ing harm.3
e proposal is accompanied by an impact assessment report.4 Collective action is not
addressed by this pack age, but forms the object of a Comm ission recommendation that
is not limited to competition law.5
Within the li mits of this artic le it is not possible to discuss all t hese documents in detai l.
erefore, the focus will be on certain elements of the proposed directive on antitrust
damages. I will rst give an overv iew of the content of the proposed directive. Subsequently,
I will have a closer look at the scope of the proposed directive and its legal basis. en,
before summing up the main lines of this article I will investigate whether the proposed
* Assistant Profe ssor at Maastricht Univers ity and University of Antwe rp.
1 Proposal for a Directiveof the Eu ropean Parliament and of the Council on certai n rules governing
actions for dama ges under nationa l law for infringements of the competit ion law provisions of the
Member States and of t he European Union, COM (2013) 404.
2 Com munication from the C ommission on quantif ying harmin a ctions for damages ba sed on breaches
of Article101 or 102 of the Treaty on the Fu nctioning of the Europ ean Union, C(2013) 3440.
3 Commission Sta Worki ng Document – Practica l Guide on quantifyi ng harm in actions for da mages
based on breaches of A rticle101 or 102 of the Treaty on the Function ing of the European Union, S WD
(2013) 20 5.
4 Commission Sta Worki ng Document, Impact Ass essment Report: Damages a ctions for breach of the
EU antitrus t rules, COM (2013) 404 nal.
5 C omm issi on Re com mend atio n of 11 June 2013 o n com mon pr inc iple s for inju nct ive a nd c ompe nsat ory
collective redress mechanisms in the Member States concerning violations of rights granted under
Union Law, [2013] OJ L 201/60.
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