Litigation and arbitration in EU competition law

Abstract

This chapter introduces the proceedings from a conference organized by the authors in Rome in November 2013. The conference was motivated by two principal considerations. First, in the last decade, the role of national courts in competition-related litigation has been significantly enhanced and deepened, due in part to the effects of EU legislation. This legislation, combined with the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, have entrusted national courts with a central role in the application of EU competition law. In this light, the first objective of the conference was to survey a variety of issues arising where competition law cases are litigated. As discussed, the competition law issues litigated in Europe arise in diverse contexts, of which private suits for damages are only one recent example. The second principal aim of the conference was to explore a set of issues where published research has been sparse and incomplete: the application of EU competition law by arbitrators. Like national courts, arbitrators have been affected in important ways by the ‘modernization’ of the enforcement of EU competition law. Indeed, the reformed framework that took effect in 2004, together with jurisprudence of the Court of Justice concerning the arbitrability of EU law issues, have made it more common for both practitioners and public enforcers to turn to arbitration as a means of enforcing competition law or monitoring case resolutions. The subject of arbitration is thus tied to our understanding of the implementation of EU law by a complex and heterogeneous institutional apparatus. In this regard, there is ample material to be explored, both in terms of what EU law permits and requires, and in terms of particular legal and institutional problems posed by commercial arbitration, including for example how it affects and is affected by the activities of public authorities enforcing EU competition law. These and related issues are discussed in the present chapter and more expansively by the other chapters contained in this volume.