Private enforcement of competition law diversified effects of haphazard harmonisation

This chapter aims to assess the tensions between diversity of national procedural and tort systems of Member States and attempts by EU institutions, especially the CJEU, to maintain the effectiveness of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU through a private enforcement of EU competition law. While analysing the evolution of private enforcement of competition law within the EU, it is clear that in spite of ground-breaking instruments such as Directive 2014/104, the current legal framework is still far from being complete and successful. At first, the chapter analyses the objectives of the Directive and of the private enforcement, then discusses the process of adoption of the Directive. Subsequently, it deals with the character and the scope of the Directive, and then its implementation process. Finally, it analyses the areas that are generally harmonised in the Directive, but their detailed scope remains implicit and the non-harmonised areas left beyond the scope of the Directive and the role of the CJEU. At the end, critical conclusions are withdrawn.