Public enforcement can be defined as the enforcement of antitrust laws by a government, for example by the competition authority or a prosecutor, to detect and sanction violators of competition rules. By contrast, private enforcement can generally be defined as litigation initiated by an individual, a legal entity, an organisation or a public entity (such as local government and procurement agency in the bid-rigging case) to have a court establish an antitrust infringement and order the recovery of the damages suffered or impose injunctive reliefs. Private enforcement can be triggered by a stand-alone action or by an action which follows on a public enforcement decision. In most jurisdictions, private enforcement is mostly represented by follow-on private actions. © OECD
See also Damages and Collective redress (class action)
