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White Paper on Antitrust Damages Actions

By Bartolus

The long awaited White Paper on Damages Actions for Breach of the EC antitrust rules has been made public.

As you probably know, it is almost impossible to get damages for breach of the antitrust rules in Europe. Instead, if you are a corporation, you go crying to the government for some state handout or protective regulation. For some time, the Commission has been looking into ways to improve the ways in which the tort system works in the member States.

The idea of the White Paper is to set out a certain number of policy choices so that they may be examined and discussed before an actual proposal is made. It deals with such matters as standing, discovery, costs, quantum of damages, limitation periods and such like. The White Paper itself is superficial and probably not very constructive.

Nevertheless, it invites comments, to be submitted to the Commission by July 15th, 2008.

Much more detailed and helpful is the Staff Working Paper which should be read also. Why the Commission wants to make life difficult by splitting the two documents is a mystery.

Also worth reading is the Impact Assessment Report. Here's an executive summary of the Impact Assessment Report.

The Commission prepared this brief press release, a series of "frequently asked questions" and a dumbed down "Citizen's Summary" (are we really held in such low esteem ?).

The White Paper draws on this study that had been prepared for the Commission and follows on from the 2005 Green Paper.

A "white paper" is a document "containing proposals for Community action in a specific area. In some cases they follow a Green Paper published to launch a consultation process at European level. When a White Paper is favourably received by the Council, it can lead to an action programme for the Union in the area concerned."

Full post as published by EU Law Blog on April 04, 2008 (boomark / email).