CJEU finds national limitation periods in conflict with the EU law principle of effectiveness

On 28 March 2019 in Case Cogeco C‑637/17 the CJEU provided guidance on the application ratione temporis of the EU Damages Directive 2014/104/EU (Directive) and stressed the importance of the principle of effectiveness for damages actions for breaches of EU competition law. The CJEU confirmed that a case-by-case analysis is required in order to assess whether the Directive is […]

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CJEU confirms the right of all cartel victims to obtain redress in Elevators and Escalators cartel case

Introduction The year 2019 was marked by a number of landmark judgements of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) in the field of private enforcement such as Skanska, Cogeco and Tibor-Trans. On 12 December 2019 the CJEU rendered its judgement in Case-435/18, Otis Geselschaft m.b.H. e.a., (Austrian Elevators and Escalators). Following the Opinion of Advocate General (‘AG’) Kokott, it […]

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Collective or Class Actions and Claims Aggregation in the EU: the Claimant’s Perspective

An extract from GCR’s Private Litigation Guide – First Edition. The whole publication is available to purchase on GCR’s website. Private enforcement of competition law in Europe has in the past decade been driven in large part by the aggregation and  enforcement of damages claims brought by multiple companies affected by the same competition law infringement […]

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The Spanish paper envelopes cartel: Compensation over 40 years later

In 1977, Spain celebrated its first democratic elections in the aftermath of the transition from dictatorship to full democracy. The leading five paper envelope producers used the occasion to create and establish one of the most harmful cartels in Spanish Public Procurement history. Before the elections took place, the transition government were required to buy […]

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