Disclosure in Antitrust Damages Actions in Europe

On 3rd November 2023, the University of Vienna, Department of European, International and Comparative Law, together with the The European Circle for Competition Damages and the Austrian Society for European Law (ÖGER) hosted a one-day conference on the topic: “Disclosure in Antitrust Damages Actions in Europe”.

Access to evidence has been marked as the key issue in antitrust damages actions in the 2014 EU Damages Directive. Roughly ten years after the Damages Directive and a first wave of cases on national level, we looked at the implementation of the disclosure rules throughout Europe. In three panels, we discussed pressing issues, such as the CJEU case law, perspectives of national courts (Austria, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and UK), cooperation with competition authorities, confidentiality arrangements, disclosure and economic evidence proceedings, cost of disclosure, and much more.

Invited speakers included: Georg Kodek (OGH/WU - Vienna University of Economics and Business), Vivien Terrien (Court of Justice of the European Union), Hanno Wollmann (Schönherr/Universität Wien), Verena Strasser (Bundeskartellanwalt-Stellvertreterin), Florian Neumayr (bpv Huegel), Petra Leupold (Verein für Konsumenteninformation), Peter Gussone (GQL), Julia Suderow (Suderow Fernández Abogadas), Joost Möhlmann (Van Benthem & Keulen), Miguel Sousa Ferro (Sousa Ferro & Associados), Clemens Kerle (CMS), Ben Lasserson (Mishcon de Reya LLP), Martin Seegers (CDC Cartel Damage Claims), Martin Gassler (Wolf Theiss), and Lena Hornkohl (University of Vienna).

The program can be found here. Note that all speakers spoke in their personal capacity.

 

A conference report by Nada Ina Pauer is available here, one by Silvia Retamales Morales is available here (in Spanish only).

 

Those speakers who used slides were kind enough to allow their publication:

Hanno Wollmann - Role of access to evidence in antitrust damages actions

Vivien Terrien - CJEU case law on disclosure and its impact on practice

Georg Kodek - Disclosure in antitrust damages actions – a perspective of national courts

Verena Strasser - Antitrust damages proceedings and cooperation with competition authorities

Lena Hornkohl - Confidentiality arrangements and disclosure

Petra Leupold - Disclosure in Antitrust Damages Actions: Experiences in Austria

Peter Gussone - Status quo of disclosure in Germany

Joost A. Möhlmann - Access to evidence: experiences from the Netherlands

Julia Suderow - Access to Information in Spain

Miguel Sousa Ferro - The reality of Access in Antitrust Private Enforcement: Overview of 3 Years' Experience in Portugal

Clemens Kerle - Disclosure in Antitrust Damages Actions in Norway: Can the EFTA Court kick start private enforcement?