Training of National Judges in EU Competition Law (DEFCOMCOURT II)

Damages compensation arising out of cartels and abuses of dominance in the market has been one of the unresolved issues of the European Competition Law during the last decades. This is particularly true for MS such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and, of course, in other MS of recent incorporation are peripheral. The consequence is that their citizens and businesses have suffered damages arising out of the illegal activity of these firms while the latters have been growing their budges with illegally obtained benefits. Competent judges of these MS have rarely faced this type of cases and they are the ones mainly coming to the activity. This is the reason why we think it is mandatory to make them aware of the relevance of their intervention that complements the one of the public authorities, Commission and European Competition authorities, whose sanctions have not enough deterrence effect and to analyse with them the different options that their national legislators have opted for in !he transposition o! Directive 2014/104/EU on compensation of damages.

The aim of our seminar is precisely to allow these national judges to asses, helped by experts in the legal and economic field, the main problems presented by compensation of damages in competition law proceedings and responses and best practices applicable to these kind of situations. For this aim, the seminar counts on an elite experts group coming from academia, judiciary and European and national public administration.