Paper Titles & Abstracts

Competition policy has always been perceived as one of the European Union's main structural tools, assuring a competitive, modern and performing economy. In an effort to guarantee an efficient enforcement mechanism of competition law, the European Commission endeavored to complement the public enforcement mechanism by facilitating private enforcement. The ensuing Green and White books, as well as the respective jurisprudence of the CJEU are well known.In the specific and broader context of fundamental rights protection, one legal aspect, that is paramount in terms of the practical implementation of claims brought forward by undertakings that suffered material losses as an effect of competition law violations, has recently received an accrued level of attention. The access to the files in competition law proceedings was at the heart of a number of legal disputes on European, as well as on Member States' level.The above-mentioned issue shows two aspects when assessed from a broad angle. On the one hand the right of access to files of those faced with allegations of competition law violations and on the other hand the access to files of those who might have suffered economic losses. The paper will undertake it to assess the latest CJEU, as well as Member States jurisprudence (i); evaluate the mutual influence on each other (ii); appraise the effects upon the efficient public as well as private enforcement (iii) and consider possible ways forward (iv).