Damages I

The standard features, in most legal systems, of a damages action, beyond the need to show illegal behaviour on the part of the defendant, are the requirement to demonstrate harm suffered by the claimant and a causal link between the illegality and that harm. This chapter looks at harm in the sense of the damage subjectively suffered by the claimant. In this sense, it looks at how the claimant can quantify the damage. This examination includes the issue of pass-on, which has traditionally been a vexed question in relation to competition law damages claims. In part, this is because of the way in which the law has handled this issue in the US, where it has been given a prominent policy role. As with the issue of indirect purchaser standing, a different, and flatter, approach has been taken in the EU.