By Karin E. Garvey –
Access to the courts is necessary to seek redress for anticompetitive activity, but the costs of litigation can deter victims of anticompetitive conduct from filing suits, particularly where individual claims are small and the procedural tool of collective actions is not available.
Additionally, access to evidence is necessary to prove an antitrust violation, but pre-trial disclosure is not available everywhere. In the United States, there is a robust class action procedure, just as there is wide-ranging pre-trial discovery. In the European Union, on the other hand, until recently there has been little of either. This paper explores the differences between the U.S. and EU regimes and the fact that the tide is turning in the European Union with the issuance of recent legislation.
