Private Enforcement In The United Kingdom

¹Although the House of Lords ruled more than 20 years ago in Garden Cottage Foods v Milk Marketing Board² that third parties are able to sue for damages for breach of articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty,³ enforcement of the competition rules in the UK has until relatively recently been primarily achieved through public enforcement. The introduction of the Modernisation Regulation,⁴ however, which decentralised the enforcement of articles 81 and 82 by giving power to both national competition authorities and national courts to apply articles 81 and 82 directly and in full, reflected the recognition on the part of the European Commission (the Commission) that a more effective system of competition enforcement could be achieved by enlisting greater assistance from national competition authorities and national courts. Increasingly, the role of private enforcement of the competition rules as a necessary complement to public enforcement is being recognised as an essential aspect of the