Injunctions at the Request of Third Parties in EU Competition Law

Abstract

The European Commission recently made significant efforts to encourage the private enforcement of EU competition law, by inducing natural and legal persons who suffered damage as a result of competition law infringements, to bring actions for monetary damages before national courts. An important obstacle to the success of this type of actions is the difficulty to prove and assess the amount of damages. This problem could be evaded by bringing actions for injunctions instead of actions for damages. Surprisingly, however, actions for injunctions have received less attention in the debate as to the private enforcement of competition law. This article investigates the current possibilities to bring actions for such injunctions either in the course of administrative procedures or in the course of civil procedures and suggests proceeding to the introduction of a harmonized action for the cessation of competition law infringements.