Private enforcement in Europe after Sumal

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In 2021, the European Court of Justice handed down an important judgment on private enforcement in Europe. It held that a claimant for damages in a cartel action can sue the subsidiary of the offender. In reaching this conclusion, the Court relied on the concept of undertaking, as developed by its case law on public enforcement. As long as the subsidiary and its parent company are engaged in the same economic activity, the concept of undertaking allows to summon any of the entities making up the undertaking. The judgment raises many questions for the future and touches upon sensitive procedural and international issues.

TABLE OF Contents Introduction, David Bosco, Professeur, Aix-Marseille Université The unsung harmony of Sumal and the Akzo line of case law Niklas Brueggemann, Policy Officer, Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission, Brussels The concept of “undertaking” in EU competition law: Before and after the Sumal judgment of the ECJ, Mercedes Pedraz Calvo, Judge, Audiencia Nacional, Madrid Principe d’effectivité, notion d’unité économique et responsabilité civile : De quelques enseignements de l’affaire Sumal, Marion Provost et Mélanie Thill-Tayara, Associées, Dechert, Paris Réflexions sur la dimension internationale de l’arrêt Sumal, Laurence Idot, Professeur émérite, Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas *This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here

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