Broadly construed, antitrust remedies aim at restoring competitive conditions in the market following an antitrust infringement, preventing future infringements, and compensating the victims of past infringements. Remedies include a large variety of measures, such as commitments made binding on firms by the European Commission or a National Competition Authority (NCA), prohibition decisions and fines imposed by competition authorities to halt ongoing violations and deter further violations, as well as damages compensation orders and injunctions issued by national courts in the context of private enforcement actions. The enforcement of remedies is thus an essential component of the effective functioning of EU competition policy.
In the past two decades, the Commission has adopted over a hundred non-cartel antitrust decisions, including over fifty commitments decisions featuring structural and behavioral remedies. Twenty years after the adoption of Regulation 1/2003, the Commission has launched an ex-post evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness of the antitrust remedies that it has so far adopted under the Regulation. In the context of the ongoing discussion on the revision of Regulation 1/2003, the question is whether and to what extent the remedies toolkit available to the Commission and NCAs is effective, or if any further adjustment is needed.
In parallel to the increasing number of remedies adopted by competition authorities, antitrust damages actions have also rapidly grown across Europe. In addition, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) broadens the scope of private enforcement actions: following the opening of the investigations by the Commission on Alphabet, Apple and Meta for possible violations of the DMA obligations, harmed business and end users can start private enforcement actions in the courts of the EU Member States. The question is then whether and to what extent damages compensation and injunctions might constitute effective remedies against violations of the DMA.
These issues will be thoroughly discussed in this seminar, hosted by NERA in their Berlin office and jointly organised with the Centre for a Digital Society of the European University Institute. The event will follow a fully in-person format and is free to attend, but pre-registration online is required.