Sharpening the European Commission’s tools: interim measures

Abstract

The European Commission is looking for new tools to enforce competition law faster and more effectively. In this context, the article explores interim measures. These allow the Commission to intervene when the anticompetitive harm must be addressed quickly. Although the antitrust community generally encourages the Commission to use interim measures more frequently, there is room to discuss how to make them sharper. For this purpose, this article studies whether there is any obstacle that may be impeding the Commission from using interim measures and explores aspects that can be reformed to enhance the effectiveness of this tool. The conclusion is that, while there is no need to make any fundamental change for the Commission to use interim measures, three aspects can be amended: the standard of “irreparable damage”, the notion of victims, and the procedure. For each of them, the article offers two options for reform drawing from other jurisdictions.