Should Children Pay for Their Parent’s Sins? The Sumal Preliminary Reference

Abstract

While EU competition rules are addressed at ‘undertakings’, a notion that denotes economic rather than legal entities, their enforcement requires the identification and imputation of one or more legal persons. The pending Sumal preliminary reference seeks guidance on whether a follow-on claim may be directed against an affiliate of the legal entity identified in the prior decision of the Commission. The questions before the Court are expected to clarify the power of national courts to attribute liability to legal entities when enforcing a decision in the field of competition law.