Belgium Adopts Law On Private Competition Damage Actions

On 18 May 2017, the Chamber of Representatives of the Federal Parliament (Kamer van volksvertegenwoordigers / Chambre des Représentants) adopted a bill facilitating actions for damages resulting from a competition law infringement. This bill inserts a third chapter on "Actions for damages following competition law infringements" in Book XVII of the Code of Economic Law (Wetboek van Economisch Recht / Code de droit économique) concerning "Specific jurisdictional procedures".

The bill implements Directive 2014/104/EU on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States, and of the European Union. The deadline for the implementation of the Directive was 27 December 2016. Belgium was therefore under time pressure to implement this Directive into Belgian law and closely follow other Member States such as Austria, France and Germany, which also only recently adopted implementing