The use of soft law instruments is pervasive in the field of EU competition policy. This poses significant legal challenges derived from the progressive ‘hardening’ of these regulatory tools by the European Courts as a result of the application of the general principles of EU law. The...

One of the criticisms against the new rules applicable to the granting of State aid to finance the provision of services of general economic interest in the "Almunia package" is that enforcement is likely to be their weakest point. Similarly, in the more general setting of the "private"...

The approval of Regulation 1/2003 and the accompanying "modernisation package" of EU antitrust rules has taken antitrust into the civil process. Some rules of this new private enforcement framework are clearly different from those of publicly enforced systems. Most noteworthy are the differences...

This paper provides an empirical study of private enforcement of competition law in Spain from 1999 to 2012. So far, the Spanish literature on competition law private litigation is based on qualitative assessments and analysis of some key cases, but has not discussed all cases in depth....

The enforcement of antitrust laws in Spain has mainly been a task for public authorities. Sanctions for antitrust infringements can only be pecuniary, as prison or other criminal penalties are not used as a punishment device. Public enforcement of antitrust laws has, therefore, taken the form of...