The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has issued an important ruling clarifying jurisdictional rules for cartel damages claims brought by parent companies on behalf of their subsidiaries (Case C-425/22).
The CJEU held that Article 7(2) of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) does not allow a parent company to bring a claim for cartel damages in its own jurisdiction when the alleged direct harm was suffered solely by its subsidiaries in other EU member states. This ruling puts important limits on the use of the "economic unit" doctrine in EU competition law for determining jurisdiction in follow-on damages litigation.
The Court rejected arguments that parent companies can simply claim they form an economic unit with their subsidiaries to centralize damages claims in the parent company's home jurisdiction. Instead, the CJEU emphasized that claims must be brought either where the defendant is domiciled or where the alleged direct harm occurred.
The following Gleiss Lutz team represented the Defendant in the proceedings before the CJEU: Dr. Christian von Köckritz (lead, partner), Dr. Miloš Kocí, Dr. Harald Weiß (counsel, all Competition/Antitrust, all Brussels), Dr. Ulrich Denzel (partner), and Dr. Carsten Klöppner (counsel, all Competition/Antitrust, both Stuttgart).
They worked closely with Anna Turi and Mark Kovacz from Schönherr Hungary, who also represent the Defendant in the underlying proceedings before the Hungarian courts.
Gleiss Lutz regularly represents Daimler Truck AG in proceedings before national courts and the CJEU and is defending Daimler Truck AG against follow-on litigation stemming from the European Commission's trucks cartel decision before the German courts and is coordinating the defense against such claims in and outside the EU as lead counsel.
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