The EU-Level Approach to Parental Liability and Its Interaction with Other Enforcement Policies and Doctrines

Abstract

This book aims to identify and articulate the main practical enforcement implications of parental liability. The previous chapter examined the most important consequence for the parent company once it has been deemed to be responsible for the EU antitrust violation of its subsidiary: it examined the sanction—the antitrust fine—that is imposed upon that parent company by the European Commission (‘the Commission’). To provide a full account of the main practical enforcement implications of parental liability, however, one should also evaluate how the doctrine of parental antitrust liability interacts in practice with other important antitrust enforcement policies and doctrines. This chapter undertakes such an evaluation. It focuses on the operation of the Commission’s administrative leniency policy with respect to parental liability, as well as the implications for the doctrine of parental liability when successor liability becomes relevant in a competition law enforcement proceeding conducted at EU level.