The Norwegian report for this year's FIDE Congress
Beccle-associates Christian N.K. Franklin, Halvard Haukeland Fredriksen and Ingrid M.H. Barlund have written the Norwegian report on the topic “Private Enforcement and Collective Redress in European Competition Law” for this year’s FIDE Congress.
Main content
The report explains how EU competition law is included in the EEA Agreement, with particular emphasis on its enforcement in the EFTA-pillar of the EEA. It is stressed that at the time of writing it remains uncertain if – and if so when, how and with what adaptations – Directive 2014/104/EU on antitrust damages actions (“Damages Directive”) will be made part of the EEA Agreement. The importance of the ongoing discussions between the EFTA States parties to the EEA Agreement (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) on the one side and the EU on the other should not be underestimated. The underlying issue is whether the three EFTA States – their National Competition Authorities (NCAs) and courts included – should be allowed to participate on an equal footing with the EU Member States in both the decentralised public enforcement of the common EU/EEA competition rules and in the facilitation of their private enforcement.
Further, the report covers selected issues relating to private enforcement in Norway, such as the (non-)binding nature of NCA decisions before Norwegian courts; the application of limitation periods time-barring potential claims and third party access to documents forming part of the Norwegian Competition Authority’s case file. Certain other related aspects of Norwegian tort and procedural law that may be affected in the event of the Damages Directive becoming part of EEA law – particularly issues connected to quantification of damages, joint and several liability and the “passing-on” defence – are also briefly touched upon.
The report, which is to be published later on in the Proceedings from the Congress, is attached.
The General Rapporteur for the topic Private enforcement in European Competition Law is Prof. Dr. Peter-Christian Müller-Graff (University of Heidelberg).
FIDE (Fédération Internationale pour le Droit Européen) is the International Federation for European Law. It has existed for more than 50 years and has evolved into a remarkable institution within the field of European law.
