Working Paper 15-10

Compensation and the Damages Directive

AUTHOR: Sebastian Peyer

ABSTRACT: The EU Damages Directive came into force in December 2014. One of its objectives is to ensure the effective private enforcement of competition law by facilitating damages claims in the courts of the EU Member States. This paper looks closely at the Directive’s compensation goal and the key arrangements that are to encourage victims to seek redress in the courts. The paper uses a simple framework to demonstrate that the Damages Directive is unlikely to foster compensation because it fails to create incentives for harmed individuals to commence legal action. If more compensation claims are desired, the Member States should devise a framework for private antitrust actions that goes beyond the Directive’s remit by, for example, allowing class actions.

KEYWORDS: Private Antitrust Enforcement, Damages Directive 2014/104/EU, Damages Actions, Compensation, Competition Law

CITATION: Peyer, S. (2015) "Compensation and the Damages Directive", CCP Working Paper 15-10

Policy Brief 15-10

Back to Working Papers Series