By Maurice Nussenbaum, published in Contrats – Concurrence – Consommation – No. 1 – January 2021
Since Directive 2014/104/ (the Directive) and its transposition into French law on 9 March 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has been pursuing the objective of making remedies for private damages more effective. To this end, it has sought to remove certain evidential obstacles for victims.
Although the case law relating to these texts is still recent in France – as they apply only to cases brought after their entry into force – there are already enough examples of their application to allow for an initial assessment.
The decisions examined illustrate various aspects of these provisions: the concept of an economic entity (the Skanska judgment), the five-year limitation period, the presumption of loss and the Dortmund judgment, the issue of compensatory interest and loss of opportunity, the concept of ‘passing’ revisited on several occasions, and the disclosure of documents, which is necessary without infringing the protection of business secrets.
It is worth noting that these provisions have already helped to strengthen victims’ rights in relation to compensation for losses resulting from breaches of competition law.
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