The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has recently embarked on a public and, what some might call, aggressive drive to incentivise private competition law claims for damages in the English courts. Though it wants to avoid the creation of a so-called litigation culture, the OFT is partnering with the European Commission (EC) and other national competition authorities to examine ways to facilitate private enforcement in national courts.
This comes at a time when the national authorities and the EC are grappling with their enforcement priorities. Much has been made in the last five to 10 years of the fight against hardcore price-fixing and market-sharing cartels. Fine levels are at an all-time high at national and European Union levels and set to increase further as the authorities arm themselves with greater fining tools and other powers to root out these most serious infringements; and yet these cases demand significant time and resources. High-profile merger cases and investigations into the conduct of large corporations also absorb much of the competition authorities’ limited resources.
