Antitrust Damages, Consumer Harm, and Consumer Collective Redress

Abstract

The European Union (EU) Antitrust Damages Directive (Directive) was enacted in December 2014 after nearly a decade of consultations—its implementation was due by 27 December 2016.1 The Directive entails a number of requirements reforming the Member States’ substantive and procedural law, thereby specifying the European damages regime. It seeks to boost private enforcement and, in particular, to enable each purchaser that suffers damage due to infringements of competition law to claim compensation. The main objective of the Directive is the attainment of ‘full compensation’, with ‘deterrence’ being stipulated as an important secondary goal.2 This paper brings into focus the harm borne by final consumers. Any infringement which raises prices to final consumers, either directly or indirectly through the supply chain, may harm such consumers in two different ways. First, final consumers who made some purchases during the infringement period (e.g. at the time a cartel was in place) may have done so at inflated prices. We refer to this as the ‘overcharge effect’. Second, final consumers who refrained from purchasing (or reduced