Ways to Promote Workable Private Antitrust Enforcement in Italy

While the European Commission is retreating its proposal to import the US model of private antitrust enforcement, this is gaining ground in Italy, where double damages have been awarded in the well-known Manfredi case. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to be awarded antitrust damages by an Italian court because of several reasons: (1) the labyrinth of the Italian courts, (2) the pliability of the Government to lobbying pressures, and (3) the courts' reluctance/inability to deploy economic concepts in calculating the amount of damages. Bearing in mind such issues, this article aims to propose viable ways of encouraging private parties to claim antitrust damages before the Italian courts, having regard to the more consolidated US experience and the suggestions put forward by the Commission at EC level. In particular, it shows the benefits of the following proposals: (1) to eliminate the exclusive competence of the Courts of Appeal so that all the cases concerning antitrust damages would go through the normal steps of the Italian judicial hierarchy and (2) to involve the National Competition Authority (NCA) in private litigation, by giving it the task of quantifying antitrust damages.