The EU Antitrust Damages Directive

Abstract This book provides a comprehensive review of the implementation of the Antitrust Damages Directive across a selected number of EU States. It looks at generic EU law issues, such as Member State process and methodology for implementing this EU Directive. It also assesses, more specifically, the national debates and their consequences at the level of substantive choices adopted—in terms of implementation of the various Directive provisions, which may necessitate some change in national legal procedures and/or remedies in relation to claims involving an EU competition law infringement. The book achieves this through discussion of the general EU law issue regarding the national methods used for transposition of an EU Directive, examining the processes and general approaches to the implementation of EU law in the form of a Directive within the legal systems of the various Member States analysed. Processes may vary from involving considerable consultation with public stakeholders to an approach confined to executive or parliamentary decision-making. Additionally, the research assesses the way in which the Antitrust Damages Directive was actually transposed and why the particular approach was adopted within the Member State, considering, for instance, whether the Directive was simply adopted as it stands (literal incorporation of its text through ‘cut and paste’) and what this will mean in terms of national court interpretation and application of the Directive/national law measures implementing it.