The 'Right to Damages' under EU Competition Law. From Courage v. Crehan to the White Paper and Beyond

Since the seminal judgment of the European Court of Justice in Courage v. Crehan (2001), a right to damages is available not only to individuals (i.e. companies) acting against the Member States, but also to individuals acting against each other, as a result of the direct effect of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. However, it is only since the Commission’s 2008 White Paper on Damages that a real impetus to the ‘private enforcement’ implied by this decision has taken place. If the White Paper is converted into legislation, it will have profound implications on the way both EU competition law and European (EU or national) private law functions. It is the provocative thesis of this book that the Commission’s struggle for a more ‘effective’ system of private enforcement has gone from being a mere enhancement of a single EU policy (competition) to slowly but surely fuelling a paradigm shift in EU law. In an absorbing and richly detailed analysis of this thesis, the author examines such controversial and complex issues facing private enforcement of competition law in the EU as the following:

• the binding effect of competition authority decisions on a civil proceeding;

• the pass-on defence and standing of indirect purchasers;

• distinguishing between restitution and compensation;

• arguments defining the ‘right’ plaintiff’;

• national procedural autonomy;

• containing the ‘spill-over’ effect; and

• assessing a unified competition litigation system.