Discuss the Ability of Private Individuals to Seek Damage for Breaches Essay

Discuss the Ability of Private Individuals to Seek Damage for Breaches of EU - Essay Example The outcome of the comparative report has enabled the European Commission to know the hurdles in the path of activating the private application of competition law within the Member States and discuss the ways by which a more dependable system of private antitrust enforcement could be created. The relative analysis of the various legal systems in the EU indicates a huge difference in the member states handling of competition law claims. Process-related differences between national legal systems in the EU are turning in favour of forum shopping in inter-state cases. Before taking an action, applicants involved in inter-state process can check the benefits and disadvantages of national jurisdictions before furthering an action for losses in one or many member states. The EU member states are expected to adhere to EC law, but the processes they follow for private enforcement cases are controlled at a national level. Changes to national law in one member state, like it happened in Germany , do not impress other member states. This gap between national process of the law and EC law needs to be settled for adopting an EU-wide universally dependable system4. This paper will discuss some leading trends in three of the Member States including Germany, UK and Italy. The role of European Commission in making the EU competition law very efficient on the private enforcements would be discussed. European Commission attained this aim by issuing the Green Paper in 2005, which was followed by the White Paper in 2008. The Courage5 verdict by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), brought more in focus the right of private individuals to fight for losses as an outcome of violations of EC competition rules, (specifically losses caused from breaches of Art 101 and Art 102 TFEU). One of the most significant reasons of the long ignorance of the private antirust from the competition policy is the distinct European system. The European Commission and European Courts impact private antitrus t cases as they have registered their attendance in public competition law enforcement. Furthermore, the European Courts are not competent enough to decree on private enforcement of EC law infringements. The European Court of Justice only considers preliminary references by national courts of the Member States such as Courage and later Manfredi6 cases. Only in select cases the ECJ has taken a stance, as Courage and Manfredi cases have huge impression on the competition law policy7. The fight between Entrepreneur Estates (previously Courage) and MrCrehan over a beer tie agreement prompted the ECJs Courage decision in 2001. The Court said that â€Å"[...] the practical effect of the prohibition laid down in Article 85(1) [Art 101(1)] would be put at risk if it were not open to any individual to claim damages for loss caused to him by a contract or by conduct liable to restrict or distort competition†8. This personal right to seek reward for the damage caused by infringement of competition rules was again reasserted in Manfredi case in Italy9. The ECJ stated as based on the principle of effectiveness the national courts o