Despite the growing importance of 'consumer welfare' in EU competition law debates, there remains a significant disconnect between rhetoric and reality, as consumers and their interests still play only an ancillary role in this area of law. Consumer Involvement in Private EU Competition Law Enforcement is the first monograph to exclusively address this highly topical and much debated subject, providing a timely and wide-ranging examination of the need for more active consumer participation in competition law. Written by an expert in the field, it sets out a comprehensive framework of policy implications and arguments for greater involvement, positioning the debate in the context of a broader EU law perspective. It outlines pragmatic approaches to remedial and procedural measures that would enable consumer empowerment. Finally, the book identifies key institutional and political obstacles to the adoption of effective measures, and suggests alternative routes to enhance the role of consumers in private competition law enforcement. The book's innovative approach, combining normative analysis and practical solutions, make it invaluable for academics, policy-makers, and practitioners in the field.
This book is a timely and comprehensive examination of consumer participation in EU competition law enforcement. Using in-depth analysis of recent case law and policy documents, it offers a clear and innovative framework of the subject's normative and practical aspects, and proposes necessary remedial and procedural rules to enable participation.
Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Law - Civil / Private / Trade / Anti Trust Law / Business Law, grade: 82.00, University College Cork, course: LLB, language: English, abstract: This paper is concerned with optimising the enforcement of European Union Competition Law against cartels participants. A critique of Directive 2014/104 and its main shortcomings will begin this paper. Investigation then launched into role of national competition authorities in the Union, arguing that enhanced member state cooperation and full transposition of draft Directive 2019/1 (ECN+) will deter cartel activity. Final point concerns individual liability against the company agents behind cartels, how corporate fines imposed by European Commission fail to deter individuals against continued cartel participation.
Recoge : 1. Collective private enforcement of consumer law. 2. Public and privatu transnational conforcemenment of EU consumer law. -- 3. Enforcement of consumers' collective interests by regulatory agencies in the Nordics countries. -- 4. The Dutcht consumer authority. -- 5. Enforcement of collective consumer interest : a competition law perspective. -- 6. Should consumer protection law be publicly enforced? An economic perspective on EC Regulation 2006/2004 and its implementattion in the consumer protection laws of the Member States. -- 7. Collectivism : evaluating the effectiveness of public and private models for regulating consumer protection. -- 8. Collective enforcement of consumer law in Europe ; private, public, and collective mechanisms.
Private Enforcement of EU Law before National Courts successfully illustrates how legal actions brought by private parties can be instrumental in strengthening compliance with EU law. Through a detailed examination of selected EU legislation across the fields of procurement, intellectual property rights, consumer protection, and competition law, Folkert Wilman compares various remedies and procedures in which private parties have been utilised in the redress of grievances under EU law. An essential reference work for practicing lawyers acting before domestic courts in matters of EU Law, this timely publication offers new insights into private enforcement as a supplementary enforcement instrument, and offers clarity on how such a tool impacts on contractual remedies, procedural issues and the role of judicial review.
In the internet age, the need for effective consumer law enforcement has arguably never been greater. This timely book is a comparative law and economic analysis of the changing landscape of EU consumer law enforcement policy. EU member states are moving away from purely public or private law enforcement and now appear to be moving towards a more mixed approach, not least due to European legislation. This book reflects on the need for and creation of efficient enforcement designs. It examines the various economic factors according to which the efficiency of different enforcement mechanisms can be assessed. Hypothetical case scenarios within package travel and misleading advertising, dealing with substantial individual harm and trifling and widespread harm are used to illustrate various consumer law problems. Design suggestions on how to optimally mix enforcement mechanisms for these case scenarios are developed. The findings are then used as a benchmark to assess real life situations in countries with different enforcement traditions - the Netherlands, Sweden and England. The book is of value to both researchers and policy-makers working in the area of consumer protection.
Collective redress has gained momentum in Europe and North America. Legal reforms are driven by different institutional conditions but show a limited degree of convergence. In this book, seventeen contributions from the US, Canada, and the Member States of the European Union put the interplay of public enforcement and private collective judicial enforcement into perspective. The parameters of analysis are the constitutional dimension (i.e. three multi-level systems compared US, EC, and Canada, vertically: allocation of powers between levels and distinction between regulation and private law and administrative control versus judicial control; horizontally: degree of harmonization, trans-border litigation, choice of law), the institutional dimension (the players, regulatory and judges, private organization and lawyers) and the substantive dimension (regulation through administrative law versus regulation through tort or contract law, standard setting (strict liability versus negligence), remedies (injunctions and damages). These three parameters are then broken down into five sections: general comparison, the public/private enforcement divide, remedies concerning the distinction between injunction and damages as well as between class actions and group actions, negotiation and adjudication, trans-border litigation and international private law. The final chapter develops prospects to indicate the way ahead.
For the purposes of discussing the idea of a possible integration of public and private enforcement of competition law in the Europe it is useful, on the one hand, to perceive how the idea of private enforcement of EU competition law has developed over recent years and, on the other hand, to purport to provide a systematic and analytic understanding of the so called 'private enforcement' 'vis a vis' public enforcement of competition law, that has clearly represented the cornerstone of the EU system of competition law. That brief introductory overview, in turn, will lead us to perceive and critically debate three contrasting views that may currently be sustained in the context of the gradual, albeit so far very limited, emergence of forms of private enforcement of competition law in the EU. These, in short, correspond to the following: (i) A view sustaining a fully integrated framework of enforcement of competition law, integrating public and private enforcement techniques in a distinctively European way (basically different from the American way) and drastically reviewing the theories and/or foundations underlying enforcement of competition rules; (ii) A view sustaining a fully autonomous or independent system of private enforcement of competition law, largely based on adequate mechanisms that allow for collective redress for claimants with small and dispersed losses to recover damages for losses they have suffered on account of anticompetitive conduct; whilst admitting that such private enforcement based on collective redress may, in some limited forms, complement public enforcement of competition law (particularly as regards the so-called follow-on cases to which we shall refer infra), according to this view, private enforcement anchored in collective redress is basically independent of enforcement by public bodies and requires no coordination with that sphere of public enforcement; (iii) According to a third possible view, public enforcement of competition law is to remain a prevailing feature of the EU system of enforcement of competition rules and private enforcement may perform a strictly complementary and subsidiary role, which will require some forms of coordination between the two areas (but always keeping in mind the dominant role of the public sphere and without requiring a fundamental shift of the theories and/or foundations underlying enforcement of competition rules). This paper basically follows such third, alternative, view, for reasons that will be put forward throughout the paper (however briefly). The paper also deals, however briefly, with the rather protracted Commission Proposals presented on 11 June 2013 and leading to a new directive on private antitrust damage actions and a non-binding recommendation on collective redress mechanisms, covering beside infringements to competition law, relief for violations of consumer protection, environmental and other laws.
Competition Law and Policy in the EU and UK provides a focused guide to the main provisions and policies at issue in the UK and EU, including topics such as anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominance, mergers and Brexit. The book’s contents are tailored to cover all major topics in competition law teaching, and the authors’ clear and accessible writing style offers an engaging and easy-to-follow overview of the subject for course use. The sixth edition provides a full update for this well-established title and takes recent developments into account, including those in the case law surrounding the concept of ‘object’ agreements under Art 101 TFEU, the concept of abuse under Art 102 TFEU, the treatment of online multi-sided platform markets, and the development of private enforcement. Chapters focus on the substantive laws of the UK and EU and demonstrate how competition law affects business including co-ordinated action, pricing behaviour, takeovers and mergers. Information is presented within a structured framework, complete with discussion of the UK enforcement structures following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The book includes a wealth of pedagogical features, including chapter overviews and summaries, discussion questions and further reading. Clear, focused and student-friendly, this book offers a comprehensive resource for students taking competition law courses and will be of interest to postgraduate students and legal professionals looking for an introduction to the topic.
