Will Its Provisions Serve Its Goals? Directive 2014/104/EU on Certain Rules Governing Actions for Damages for Competition Law Infringements

Abstract

As some time has passed since its adoption, it now appears that Directive 2014/104/EE on Damages Actions for Antitrust Infringements contains useful procedural rules but is mostly characterised by general and vague goal-setting provisions, which are very often not applicable as such and cannot be incorporated in the national compensation systems without further specification. The Directive might hence not achieve a large degree of harmonisation of the national antitrust damages rules. In view of the increased complexity of some of the compensation rules, it is also questionable whether we will see an overall improvement in the effectiveness of private enforcement in most Member States. If there is one objective that the Directive could achieve, it is probably to establish better coordination between private and public enforcement.