Directive 2014/104/EU on private antitrust enforcement opted for the exclusion of punitive damages from the category of recoverable damages following a violation of antitrust law. This article will outline the concept of punitive damages and analyse the relevant case-law of the courts of the Member States, of the ECtHR and of the ECJ. Then, it will examine the regime laid down in...
The article discusses the framework of liability for anti-competitive conduct of a genuinely independent third party as set forth in relevant judgments. It refers to concepts of third party liability in the light of the principle of personal responsibility developed by doctrine and jurisprudence. The CJEU has set out important rules relating to liability of an undertaking for...
The public administration of the European Union (EU) is a sui generis multi-level structure under constant development. After five decades of successful functioning, the European Union still lacks a coherent and comprehensive set of codified rules of administrative procedure at all levels. The existing acquis related to European administration and administrative procedures is...
The paper analyses to what extent financial consumer protection forms part of the competition law objective of consumer welfare that EU competition law nowadays adheres to. It argues that while EU consumer law more generally aims at protecting the final consumer, EU financial consumer protection instruments often protect a broader spectrum of customers. This wider notion of the...
This contribution examines some of the consequences of the UK’s exit from the European Union for the enforcement of the competition rules. It reflects on the impact that Brexit is going to have on future transnational antitrust litigation in Britain and Europe. Thereafter it analyses the challenges that Brexit is likely to present for cooperation in public competition enforcement...
In 2016, the Turkish Competition Authority (hereinafter, TCA) published the Cement Sector Inquiry Report (hereinafter, Cement Sector Report) following more than two years of market analysis. One of the reasons for conducting such a market inquiry was the fact that the implementation of competition rules and accuracy of the economic analysis by the TCA in cement cases were...
The Slovak hybrid mail services case (or Slovenska posta case) is truly unique in EU jurisprudence. Within the last decade, the European Commission rarely applied Article 106(1) in conjunction with Article 102 TFEU to challenge competition distortions in individual cases. Thus Slovenska posta constitutes one of the rare examples of such enforcement. Slovenska posta also...
The paper focuses on railway services in the Slovak Republic and describes the organization of public administration in this area and its responsibility for protecting consumer rights. It analyses customers’ rights stipulated in the Slovak legislation and comes to a conclusion that they drive mainly from the EU law. The paper also presents a customer satisfaction survey regarding...
The Serbian Competition Act , which has been in force since November 2009, was amended in 2013 in order to improve the effective enforcement of competition rules by the Commission for Protection of Competition (hereinafter, the Commission or Competition Commission), and to further harmonise national regulations with the EU acquis in the area of protection of competition. The 2009...
This paper presents evidence of the head-on open access competition which took place on the market of long-distance passenger rail services in Poland in 2009-2015. The regional governments-owned challenger managed to raise its market share to more than 33% (2010) but eventually was forced out of the market (2015) due to a sudden change in its business strategy as well as the...
The article explores the problems related to the determination of a single economic unit under competition law. The first part of the article addresses the concept of a single economic entity. It is presumed that companies belonging to a group are separate undertakings, but under certain circumstances the group might constitute a single economic entity. The second part refers to...
The main focus of the paper is the function of economics in the current application of competition law. While advocating further economization of the law, it is seen as necessary to widen the extent to which aspects of economic efficiency encompassing static and dynamic efficiency are taken into consideration in an antitrust analysis. Much attention is devoted to these issues...
On May 21st 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union in CDC Hydrogen Peroxide decided whether the application of jurisdiction clauses in actions for damages impedes the effective enforcement of EU competition law. The CJ stayed silent, however, on how to treat arbitration clauses, which similarly to jurisdiction clauses, exclude a default court jurisdiction. The question...
In the last few years the behavior of undertakings operating in the regulated utility markets, such as energy, water and communications, has been in the focus of the Bulgarian Competition Authority (hereinafter, BCA). Typically, these companies are dominant due to their exclusive licenses to operate in a certain territory and thus the contents of their contractual relationships...
Under the EU Merger Regulation, if the Commission has concerns that a merger may significantly affect competition in the European Union, the merging companies may propose modifications to the project that would guarantee continued competition on the market. The Commission may declare a concentration compatible with the common market following such a modification by the parties...
Competition law sets limits on the exercise of intellectual property rights by dominant companies, namely in cases involving standard essential patents (SEPs). This article will examine the framework for SEP owners’ right to seek an injunction, discussing competitive problems that such situations may cause as well as the solutions adopted by the European Institutions,comparing...
Private enforcement in Lithuania is still at the early development stage, as only a few infringement decisions of the national competition authority – the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania – have been followed on by private antitrust claims. Nevertheless, it might be observed that victims of competition law infringements tend to initiate standalone claims for...
The article aims to compare and evaluate solutions with regard to compensatory collective redress existing in CEE countries. The author will attempt to illuminate obstacles and challenges to using collective redress as an avenue for antitrust enforcement in CEE countries, as well as possible advantages of the scrutinised legal frameworks. Besides focusing on national provisions...
The article looks primarily at the material comprised in the volume edited by A. Piszcz, Implementation of the EU Damages Directive in Central and Eastern European Countries published in 2017 and based on that compares aspects of the disclosure of evidence issue in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The...
One of the main objectives of the so-called Damages Directive (2014/104/EU) was to make antitrust enforcement more effective. Although in most EU countries private antitrust enforcement has been possible subject to general rules of civil law; the number of private antitrust litigations has remained relatively low. It is presumed that the complementary roles of public and private...
The article analyses the provisions on limitation of antitrust damages actions set out in Directive 2014/104/EU on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union. It presents (draft) implementing legislation of CEE countries from the perspective of their general...
The article focuses on the concept of passing-on of overcharges and the peculiarities of its regulation by the Damages Directive. The Damages Directive obliges Member States to ensure that the defendant in an action for damages may invoke the passing-on defence. Moreover, the Directive establishes the new framework and the main principles that govern the application of the...
Quantification of harm is regarded as one of the most significant obstacles for the full compensation of harm and development of private enforcement within the European Union, including CEE Member States. Consequently, the Damages Directive establishes general rules and requirements for the quantification of harm, such as a rebuttable presumption of harm in case of cartels, the...