Antitrust Damages, Consumer Harm, and Consumer Collective Redress

Key PointsFollowing (price-increasing) competition law infringements, consumer harm is two-fold.Consumers are negatively impacted by (i) the overcharge (they pay more for the goods actually purchased during the infringement period) and (ii) a ‘lost consumption effect’ (they buy less because of the infringement).From an economic point of view, the latter damage component can be sizeable, both in absolute and relative terms. From a legal point of view, the harm resulting from this ‘lost consumption effect’ is particularly hard to compensate.Collective redress mechanisms are necessary to ensure that at least compensation of (passed-on) overcharges can be successfully claimed by consumers