Policy preferences in the US shape private antitrust remedies in the form
of deterrence; any compensation failures can be justified as long as the deterrent
function is successful. In contrast, EU private antitrust enforcement seeks to ensure
that anyone who has suffered harm from a violation of competition law can
effectively exercise their right to claim full compensation; deterrence can be seen as
a mere side effect. This paper will demonstrate that full compensation is unfeasible
in practice, because compensating direct purchasers and indirect purchasers will
inevitably fail to a greater or lesser degree. Second, it will show that the EU’s
compensation-based mechanism, with a specific emphasis on full compensation, has
more of a need for deterrence-based tools than the deterrence-focused mechanism of
the US.

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• The Effectiveness of Antitrust Collective Litigation in the European Union: A Study of the Principle of Full Compensation