Companies and individuals seeking damages from antitrust violations will have an easier path under a new law approved by European Parliament last week.

The new directive will aid victims of cartel activity, price fixing, and abuse of dominant market positions to seek compensation, including lost profits and interest. It will give victims better access to information to prove their case as well as more time to file claims, the European Commission's press service reported.

While the EU Court of Justice previously supported the rights of antitrust infringement victims to receive compensation, the commission said due to differences in national laws that compensation was often hard to win depending on where the victim was located. While the U.K., Germany, and the Netherlands were viewed as more favorable jurisdictions to seek redress, overall in the EU only 25 percent of the commission's infringement decisions in the last seven years were followed with civil claims for redress, according to the commission.

Under the directive:

·         National courts can order companies to disclose evidence to victims seeking compensation, although disclosures will be “proportionate” and confidential information will be protected.

·         If a national competition authority makes a final decision that an infringement occurred, that decision will constitute proof in courts in the same Member State where the infringement occurred.

·         Victims will have one year to claim damages from the final infringement decision by a competition authority.

·         Victims will be able to seek compensation for actual loss and for loss of profit, including the payment of interest from when the infringement occurred.

·         If price increases caused by the infringement were passed on down the distribution chain, the companies or individuals that suffered harm in the end will be entitled to seek damages.

·         Voluntary settlements between claimants and infringing companies will be made easier by clarifying their effect on court actions.

The directive, proposed by the commission last year, now needs final approval from the EU Council of Ministers. Member State representatives already have agreed on the proposed law informally. Once adopted by the Council, Member States will have two years to implement the law.

Commission Vice President in charge of competition Joaquín Almunia said the law will help those seeking redress from antitrust violations.

“The Directive will help to make the right to full compensation a reality in the EU, by removing the practical obstacles that victims face today,” Almunia said in a statement. “When the directive is adopted and implemented, obtaining redress will become easier for them, especially after a competition authority has found and sanctioned an infringement.”

Authorities said the directive will not weaken so-called leniency programs, in which companies cooperate with the competition authorities. Under the proposed law, leniency statements and settlement submissions will not be disclosed. Certain information produced within public enforcement proceedings, such as responses to questions posed by competition authorities, will not be released until after the investigation is closed. In the case of co-infringers in which one company is granted immunity as part of a leniency program, the company with immunity is primarily liable only to its own customers or providers. Lawmakers said that provision prevents cooperating companies from becoming the primary target for compensation from harm caused by the entire cartel.

Bernd Meyring, a partner with Linklaters law firm in Brussels, told EurActiv news site that the new regulations are fairly easy on the companies granted immunity, or the whistleblowers, in cartel cases.

“The fact that whistleblowers have often been the first victims of damage claims is counterbalanced by a limitation of their liability to their own customers,” EurActiv quoted Meyring as saying. “This should further strengthen the incentives to apply for immunity.”

EurActiv also noted the major role such whistleblowers have played in recent years in helping the commission discover price-fixing schemes, with cases resulting in fines of more than €22 billion over a 14-year period.

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