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How to facilitate damage claims? Private enforcement of competition rules in Croatia - domestic and EU law perspective

Ever since the Croatian Competition Agency started functioning in 1997, public enforcement of competition law has been the norm. Civil actions for breaches of competition law have been the exception in Croatia. The existing legislation in the area of competition law makes no effort to incentivise private enforcement. There are no specific rules in the Competition Act 2009 dedicated to civil actions, except a single provision that assigns jurisdiction over damages claims to commercial courts. General tort law is applicable in order to prove damages. A number of issues arise here mostly due to the complexity of competition cases. These issues were described in the European Commission’s White Paper on Damages Actions for Breach of EC Antitrust Rules (2008). The level of uncertainty as regards the outcome of the claim is high. It seems that special rules need to be adopted in Croatia in order to improve the position of the injured side. The paper deals with a number of procedural and substantive law issues relevant to the facilitation of civil proceedings for antitrust damages. A domestic law perspective is applied taking into account recent developments in EU competition law and policy.

private enforcement; Croatia; liability for damages; prejudicial question; binding effect; access to evidence; limitation periods; standing; indirect purchasers; passing-on defence; collective protection; harmful act; fault; causal link; types of harm; scope of damages

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