La cuantificación de daños y perjuicios en la aplicación privada del derecho europeo de la competencia
The assement of prejudice in the private enforcement

Summary/Abstract: The private application of the Competition Law consists mainly of civil actions for the granting of remedies with the purpose of reducing the effects caused by an anti-competitive conduct. It must be stated that, at a community level, the private enforcement of the Competition Law is not fully developed and that the most alarming element in this regard is the small number of actions for compensation consequent on an anticompetitive conduct. According to some specialists’ opinion, this underdevelopment stage is due to an array of obstacles amongst which stands out the fact that the assessment of prejudice caused by an anti-competitive conduct is possible in an incertitude manner. Naturally, the compensation covers both the real prejudice and the profit loss. In order to demonstrate the real prejudice one does not have to make an extra effort but that of proving the facts presented in the failed complaint, whereas for the profit loss we encounter an additional problem since this prejudice is not yet substantiated. The challenge stands within the reality that this prejudice can not possibly be proven with the same certainty as the real one. While the evaluation of the real prejudice can be accurately achieved, the quantification of the profit loss demands a probabilities exam which, in the best case scenario, can lead to the highlighting of a quantity that is close to the real value of the prejudice, but this real value shall never be reached. Moreover, the problem of establishing the real value of the prejudice was not solved. A special pattern that can be applied by every expert and that can determine a value as close as possible to the real one is yet to be discovered.

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