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The Implications of the Directive on Certain Rules Governing
Antitrust Damages Lawsuits on Turkish Law*
Prof. Dr. H. Ercument Erdem
Introduction
The Directive on certain rules governing actions for damages
under the national law concerning infringements of the competition
law provisions of the Member States, and of the European Union (the
“Directive”)1, was adopted by the European Union Council of
Ministers (the “Council”) on 10 November 2014. Pursuant to Article
23, the Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following
its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Member
states will have two years to implement the provisions of the Directive
into their legal systems.
My earlier article of April, 2014, elaborated on The Draft
Directive. In this article, I will deal with its possible implications on
major points of Turkish competition law.
The Role of the National Court for the Establishment of
Competition Law Infringement
The Directive does not provide any rule that an infringement of
competition law has to be first established by any national competition
authority or the Commission. To the contrary, the preamble (§ 13) of
the Directive makes it clear that “the right of compensation is recog-
nized … regardless of whether or not there has been a prior finding of
an infringement by a competition authority.” Therefore, under the
regime provided by the Directive, any person who has suffered harm
COMPETITION LAW 231
* Article of November 2014
1 Please see.
en.pdf.