Competition Litigation Across the EU 1999-2009: A comparative Analysis, Focusing on Consumer Redress

该项目涉及在欧盟成员国的国家法院适用竞争法。竞争法旨在规范企业的市场行为，例如禁止滥用垄断权力和建立卡特尔。一个典型的价格垄断卡特尔涉及潜在竞争者之间的勾结，他们同意将价格定在高于竞争价格的水平，以牺牲消费者和社会的利益为代价获取超额利润。传统上，欧盟和英国的竞争法几乎完全由行政机构执行，例如处以巨额罚款。这些罚款并不直接补偿任何违反竞争法的受害者。欧洲历史上行政执法的首要地位与美国竞争法（“反垄断法”）形成鲜明对比，在美国，私人执法构成了反垄断执法的绝大多数。发达的集体诉讼制度确保了私人执法极为有效，并可使最终消费者的损失得到赔偿。美国的制度强调消费者权利的重要性，而欧盟似乎缺乏这一方面。欧盟委员会在2008年4月发表的白皮书提出了一些有趣的建议，以促进和协调整个社会的竞争诉讼。OFT在其2007年建议中也提出了英国系统的改革，但尚未实施。这两套建议都特别考虑了促进消费者补救的方法。迄今为止，还没有对各会员国法律制度的私人诉讼中出现的竞争法问题的判例法进行全面或系统的研究，这个项目将填补这一空白。该项目将与每个欧盟成员国的报告员以及专家经济和比较法律投入合作。每位报告人将确定并提供十年来成员国法院审理的所有竞争法案件的细节，以便对欧盟所有与竞争法相关的私人诉讼进行全面分析。这将有助于更清楚和更充分地了解有效私人执法的障碍，特别是与消费者有关的障碍，并鼓励学习和分享最佳做法。最近的一个分界点是必要的，因为第1/2003号条例于2004年5月1日生效，并试图加强国家法院在欧盟竞争法执法中的作用，其目的是考虑该日期前后五年期间的所有案件，即1999年5月1日至2009年4月30日。从激励的角度对程序规则的差异进行经济概述，并对一些国家的法律制度、诉讼行为和其他独立变量的差异进行比较审查，将有助于我们了解私人执法存在的法律背景、它是如何受到限制和可能得到便利的。这是本研究开展和传播的一个至关重要的时期，因为私人执法被竞争当局和从业者视为更具竞争力的英国和欧洲经济的关键因素。根据欧盟委员会白皮书和OFT的建议，拟议的研究将为欧盟和英国正在进行的政策辩论提供信息，这些建议提出了促进私人竞争诉讼和消费者诉诸司法的方法。因此，这项研究将对学者、从业人员、司法机构、消费者组织、企业、政策制定者和公共执法机构有价值。欧盟委员会竞争局局长和英国公平贸易办公室表示，他们强烈支持拟议的研究，这将使OFT能够从其他成员国的发展中学习，以提高英国的司法、竞争诉讼制度和间接竞争力。

This project concerns the application of competition law in the national courts of the EU Member States. Competition law seeks to regulate the market behaviour of businesses, for instance by prohibiting the abuse of monopoly power and the creation of cartels. A typical price-fixing cartel involves collusion between would-be competitors who agree to fix prices at levels above the competitive price, making excessive profits at the expense of consumers and society generally. EU and UK competition law have traditionally been enforced virtually exclusively by an administrative body, for instance by the imposition of considerable fines. These fines do not compensate directly any of the victims of the competition law infringements. The historical primacy of administrative enforcement in Europe is in stark contrast with US competition law ('antitrust law') where private enforcement constitutes the vast majority of antitrust enforcement. The availability of a well-developed system of class actions has ensured that private enforcement is extremely effective and can result in end-consumers being compensated for their losses. The US system emphasises the importance of consumer rights, an aspect which appears to be lacking in the EU. A Commission White Paper published in April 2008 made a number of interesting proposals to facilitate and harmonise competition litigation across the Community. Reform of the UK system was also proposed by the OFT in its 2007 Recommendations, not as yet implemented. Both sets of proposals in particular consider ways of faciltating consumer redress.There has been to date no comprehensive or systematic study of the case-law in which competition law issues have arisen in private litigation across the Member State legal systems, and this project will fill this lacuna. The project will be collaborative, with rapporteurs for each EU Member State and expert economic and comparative legal input. Each rapporteur will identify and provide details of all competition law cases before Member State courts over a period of ten years, in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of all competition law-related private litigation across the EU. This will allow for a clearer and fuller understanding of the obstacles to effective private enforcement, particularly in relation to consumers, and encourage learning and sharing of best practice. A recent cut-off point is necessary, and as Regulation 1/2003 came into force on 1 May 2004, and sought to enhance the role of the national courts in EU competition law enforcement, the intention is to consider all cases within the five year period either side of this date, i.e. 1 May 1999-30 April 2009. An economic overview of differences in procedural rules from an incentives perspective and a comparative review of differences in legal systems, litigation behaviour and other independent variables in a number of States will help us understand the legal context in which private enforcement exists, how it has been constrained and may be facilitated.This is a vitally important period for this research to be undertaken and disseminated, as private enforcement is viewed by competition authorities and practitioners as a key element of a more competitive UK and European economy. The proposed research will inform ongoing policy debates at the EU and UK following the Commission White Paper and OFT recommendations, which suggested ways of facilitating private competition litigation and access to justice for consumers. The research will thus be of value to academics, practitioners, the judiciary, consumer organisations, business, policy makers and public enforcement agencies. DG Competition of the European Commission and the UK Office of Fair Trading have indicated their strong support for the proposed research, and it will allow the OFT to learn from developments in other Member States to enhance access to justice, the competition litigation system, and indirectly competitiveness, in the UK.