Private enforcement of anti-trust law is here to stay; the long awaited introduction of Law 4529/2018 on Wednesday 14 March 2018 offers a valuable tool in the hands of the Greek market player, who now plays an equally essential part in applying competition rules (private enforcement). Law 4529/2018 transposed Directive 2014/104/EU and applies to individual civil actions for damages incurred following a breach of competition law.
Key features of Law 4529/2018:
- The Law clarifies that victims are entitled to full compensation for the harm suffered, which covers compensation for actual lossand for loss of profit, plus payment of interest from the time the harm occurred until compensation is paid.
- Parties will have easier access to evidence they need in actions for damages in the antitrust field. In particular, if a party needs documents that are in the hands of other parties or third parties to prove a claim or a defence, it may obtain a court order for the disclosure of those documents. The judge will have to ensure, however, that disclosure orders are proportionate and that confidential information is duly protected.
- Any participant in an infringement will be responsible towards the victims for the whole harm caused by the infringement (joint and several liability), with the possibility of obtaining a contribution from other infringers for their share of responsibility. However, to safeguard the effectiveness of leniency programmes, this will not apply to infringers which obtained immunity from fines in return for their voluntary cooperation with a competition authority during an investigation; these immunity recipients will normally be obliged to compensate only their (direct and indirect) customers.
- The Law establishes a rebuttable presumption that cartels cause harm. This will facilitate compensation, given that victims often have difficulty in proving the harm they have suffered. The presumption is based on the finding that more than 90% of cartels cause a price increase. In the very rare cases where a cartel does not cause price increases, infringers can still prove that their cartel did not cause harm.
- Clear limitation period rules are established so that victims have sufficient time to bring an action. In particular, victims will have at least 5 years to bring damages claims, starting from the moment when they had the possibility to discover that they suffered harm from an infringement. This period will be suspended or interrupted if a competition authority starts infringement proceedings, so that victims can decide to wait until the public proceedings are over.
- From 16 September 2018 onwards, all actions raised on the basis of Law 4529/2018 shall be heard before a special devision of the First Instance Court of Athens, which shall be comparted by judges specialized in competition law.