The EU and Competition and Litigation departments of Ashurst Madrid have jointly prepared an article that analyses the damages claims derived from antitrust infringements in Spain and that includes the main novelties introduced in the Spanish legislation after the transposition of Directive 2014/104/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law ("Damages Directive").
The transposition of the said Directive took place on May 27th 2017, with the approval of Royal Decree-law 9/2017, of May 26 ("RDL 9/2017") that modified both the competition rules, through the introduction of a new title in the Spanish Competition Act 15/2007("SCA"), as well as the procedural rules, through the introduction of a new section in the Civil Procedural Act 1/2000 ("CPA").
In this way, the article analyses the most relevant amendments introduced by RDL 9/2017 in the SCA, such as the right to full compensation, the joint liability of the infringers, the establishment of a five-year limitation period, the effects of the national and foreign competition authorities' resolutions or the passing-on defence. It also addresses the main novelties included in the CPA, among others, the new rules of access to the sources of evidence, confidentiality, procedural rules and disclosure of evidence.
Finally, the article contains a lot of references to cases and national jurisprudence that examines the casuistry of damages claims in Spain and their evolution, both from the perspective of competition and procedural law.
The chapter can be read in full on the ICLG website.
