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Grady, Kevin E. --- "Lessons Learned from the US Experience in Private Enforcement of Competition Laws" [2006] ELECD 535; in Marsden, Philip (ed), "Handbook of Research in Trans-Atlantic Antitrust" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Handbook of Research in Trans-Atlantic Antitrust

Editor(s): Marsden, Philip

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845421816

Section: Chapter 18

Section Title: Lessons Learned from the US Experience in Private Enforcement of Competition Laws

Author(s): Grady, Kevin E.

Number of pages: 26

Extract:

18 Lessons learned from the US experience
in private enforcement of competition
laws
Kevin E. Grady1


Introduction
In writing this chapter2 I am aware of the irony that a US antitrust pract-
itioner should have the temerity to advise the legal community in the
European Union about how to structure an effective model for private
antitrust litigation. After all, a system that has two federal antitrust
enforcement agencies and 50 state attorneys-general with overlapping juris-
diction to enforce antitrust laws is not an obvious role model of efficiency.
Add to this legal gumbo the prospect of private antitrust litigation at both
the state and federal levels, and you have the proverbial Rube Goldberg
design for private antitrust litigation.
Fortunately, whether the US model is a sensible one to emulate is not the
question addressed by this chapter. If it were, the answer would be a
resounding `No', and the chapter would end. Instead this chapter will
address what lessons or parts of the US system would be most useful to
consider as the European Union stands on the precipice of contemplating
the initiation of private antitrust litigation throughout the Union.
Mario Monti, former European Commissioner for Competition
Matters, obviously energized this concept of private enforcement actions
in remarks he gave towards the end of his term in office in 2004. While
Commissioner Monti acknowledged that private enforcement of
European Commission and national competition law has been `extremely
limited to date', he went on to state that `greater private enforcement ...