1. Introduction
Almost 10 years after the enactment of EU Directive 2014/104 ('Damages Directive'), the private enforcement of competition law in the European Union ('EU') has truly taken off.1 By the end of 2020, at least 299 cartel damages actions had been decided in 14 Member States, compared with only about 50 in early 2014.2 Various factors explain such growth, including the Damages Directive's claimant-friendly legal framework, pro-claimant rulings by the European Court of Justice ('ECJ'), a more ingrained litigation culture in many Member States, and, not least, a flourishing third-party funding industry.3
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Footnotes
1. 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 EU [2014] OJ L 349.
2. The 299 cases come from 14 countries: Germany (177 cases); France (52 cases); Spain (25 cases); Hungary (eight cases); Italy and the Netherlands (six cases each); Belgium (five cases); Austria, Finland and Greece (four cases each); Denmark (three cases); Poland and the United Kingdom (two cases each); and Portugal (one case). See Jean-François Laborde, Cartel Damages Actions in Europe: How Courts Have Assessed Cartel Overcharges, September 2021, Concurrences 3-2021, p. 235.
3. The PACCAR judgment in the United Kingdom, which ruled that many litigation funding agreements may be unenforceable, does not change this state of play (PACCAR [2023] UKSC 28). Needless to say, it only applies to agreements under English law, and, in any case, claimants and funders will likely renegotiate agreements to make them compliant with English law.
Originally Published by ICLG - Competition Litigation 2024
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