This overview covers the main developments in competition law and policy in Portugal in the course of 2022. Legislative and institutional developments The Portuguese Competition Act and the bylaws of the Portuguese Competition Authority (PCA) were subject to significant amendments in 2022. Those amendments were approved by Law no. 17/2022, of 17 August, which…
The judgment of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in Tráficos Manuel Ferrer (C-312/21) provides some clarity on the compatibility of national cost rules and judicial damages estimation with EU primary law – the effective enforcement of EU competition law – and the rules of the Damages Directive. The CJEU followed AG Kokott’s opinion to…
Over the last five years, mass litigation in the field of antitrust in Spain has rapidly increased. The so-called “Trucks Cartel Litigation” has generated thousands of judgements and dozens of referrals to the CJEU. These judgements and referrals have allowed national courts and the CJEU to clarify several legal questions, such as the temporal application…
Last November, on the 10th anniversary of the Brazilian Competition Act (Law No. 12,529/2012, or BCA), a long-expected regulation aiming at incentivizing actions for antitrust damages was enacted in Brazil (the so-called “Brazilian Private Enforcement Package” – BPEP, or Law No. 14,470/2022). Formerly proposed before the Brazilian Senate in 2016 (Senate Bill 283/2016) and inspired…
On 10 November 2022, the European Court of Justice (ECJ or the Court) delivered its judgment in another private enforcement case, interpreting Art. 5 of Directive 2014/104/EU (the Damages Directive or the Directive). It answered the preliminary question raised by a Spanish First Instance Commercial Court that the disclosure of information or documents which do…
The collective private antitrust cases in the so-called timber cartel keep many German courts busy. At the beginning of the year, the Stuttgart Regional Court rejected any claims for cartel damages in a rather blunt manner [Link]. Now, the Regional Court of Dortmund has heard the case. As Dortmund is located in Germany’s Westfalia region,…
Two Germans meet in Graz to discuss private enforcement of competition law in the EU. Tune in for the first in-person interview of the competition edition of the International Law Talk Podcast. On a warm summer day in June, I interviewed Thomas Thiede on our favorite topic: private enforcement of competition law and its newest…
Recent posts on this blog (here) have already highlighted the role that the adoption of Directive 2014/104/EU (Damages Directive or Directive) and the European Commission’s (EC) decision in case AT.39824 – Trucks, amongst other events, have played as turning points in private enforcement of competition law in the EU. The Directive has led not only…
In any system, the competition regulator’s ability to investigate, sanction, and remedy competition grievances are directly dependent on the size of resources (financial, personal, and informational) that regulator has at their disposal. Competition regulators have been known to issue policies setting priority areas for competition law enforcement based on sectoral and severity criteria to overcome…
Advocate General Rantos delivered his Opinion in a request of a preliminary ruling by a Spanish court (case C-267/20), the Audiencia Provincial of León, the appellate court in a trucks’ cartel damages claim. In particular, Advocate General Rantos Opinion deals with the temporal scope of application of the Damages Directive; the “substantive” or “procedural” nature…
