The Parental Liability in the Private Enforcement of EU Competition Law

In order to ensure the effectiveness of EU competition law rules, several theories have been developed as to liability in the single economic unit: the parental liability, the subsidiary liability and the sister liability. This contribution in EU Law Live's Competition Corner's 5th Symposium “Private Enforcement of Competition Law" reflects on the idea of parental liability, its relationship with private enforcement of competition law, its practical repercussions and the Skanska and Sumal cases. Parental liability is a necessary compromise to reconcile, on the one hand, the single economic unit as the atom of the EU autonomously born competition law and, on the other hand, the principles under domestic legal orders (legal certainty, personal liability, fault and presumption of innocence), and which forced to square the circle by dissociating the concepts of author and liable person. Apparently theoretical, it hides important practical implications since it determines presumptions and the bidirectionality in the imputation (subsidiary to parent; parent to subsidiary) which make palatable (and can only be explained by) in domestic legal orders the extended liability within the economic unit companies. And repercussions in private enforcement are many: economic capacity, jurisdiction issues, legal standing, strategic litigation and much more.