PRIVATE ENFORCEMENT OF COMPETITION LAW THROUGH COLLECTIVE REDRESS - 2025

The past years have witnessed a rapid growth of private enforcement of competition law throughout Europe. Following the entry into force of the EU Damages Directive in 2016, the number of legal actions started by harmed competitors and customers against the firm(s) breaching competition rules have substantially increased. In particular, following the European Commis- sion 2016 Decision sanctioning the cartel established by the major truck manufacturers in Europe, thousands of legal actions have started in the civil and commercial courts in Spain, Germany and other European countries. These damages compensation actions, however, are usually started by individual firms ? i.e. SMEs that had previously purchased trucks from the cartelists. In other words, US-style antitrust class actions by harmed consu- mers are still not common in Europe. This enforcement scenario, however, might change in the near future: in transposing the Directive 2020/1828 on Collective Action Redress, Portugal and other EU Member States have exten- ded the scope of the Directive to competition law. Since the Directive entered into force only in June 2023, it is too early to understand its concre- te effects on actions for collective redress in the field of competition law in Europe. Nevertheless, Directive is likely to further boost antitrust damages actions in certain European countries, like Portugal. The book by Bianca Mendes Pereira Richter discusses collective redress of competition law from a comparative perspective. In particular, the volume compares the legislative framework and the relevant case law in Brazil and in the European Union, looking at the case of Portugal. The case of Portugal, therefore, is interesting to test possible future antitrust class actions in Europe - i.e. up to now a topic subject to controversy in Europe. Secondly, having the same language and similar legal systems facilitates the compara- tive analysis between Portugal and Brazil. In view of these consideration