Vicarious Liability in Groups of Companies and in Supply Chains - Is Competition Law Leading the Way?

The article discusses the concept of vicarious liability in the area of competition law. It argues that this concept is to some extent embedded in the concept of the undertaking under competition law with the consequence that parent companies – under certain conditions – can be held liable for comp...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Vibe Ulfbeck
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Católica Editora 2019-10-01
Series:Market and Competition Law Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/mclawreview/article/view/2361
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841563954427461632
author Vibe Ulfbeck
author_facet Vibe Ulfbeck
author_sort Vibe Ulfbeck
collection DOAJ
description The article discusses the concept of vicarious liability in the area of competition law. It argues that this concept is to some extent embedded in the concept of the undertaking under competition law with the consequence that parent companies – under certain conditions – can be held liable for competition law infringements committed by subsidiaries. The liability can be termed “vicarious” because it is imposed regardless of whether the parent company was involved in or ought to have had any knowledge of the competition law infringements committed by the subsidiary. Whereas such liability has until recently only been imposed for administrative fines, the Skanska decision changes this. Following this decision it must be assumed that parent companies can also be held vicariously liable for civil liability incurred by a subsidiary. It is pointed out that it is a separate question whether the Akzo-presumption rule, established with regard to the imposition of fines for competition law infringements, can also be applied in a pure civil liability case concerning parental liability. Next, the article discusses whether the results reached in the area of competition law can be transferred to other areas of the law. In this regard, the article analyses recent case law with regard to parental liability for workers’ injuries and environmental damage and compares these areas of the law to competition law. Finally, the article discusses whether the concept of the undertaking can be extended to apply also in situations where companies are not tied by ownership but by contract. In this regard the article focuses on the (possibly) emerging concept of supply chain liability.
format Article
id doaj-art-e4ea8dc9a2514f1b94c7b65d6a7951a3
institution Kabale University
issn 2184-0008
language English
publishDate 2019-10-01
publisher Universidade Católica Editora
record_format Article
series Market and Competition Law Review
spelling doaj-art-e4ea8dc9a2514f1b94c7b65d6a7951a32025-01-02T23:23:27ZengUniversidade Católica EditoraMarket and Competition Law Review2184-00082019-10-013210.7559/mclawreview.2019.2361Vicarious Liability in Groups of Companies and in Supply Chains - Is Competition Law Leading the Way?Vibe Ulfbeck0University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law, Centre for Enterprise Liability The article discusses the concept of vicarious liability in the area of competition law. It argues that this concept is to some extent embedded in the concept of the undertaking under competition law with the consequence that parent companies – under certain conditions – can be held liable for competition law infringements committed by subsidiaries. The liability can be termed “vicarious” because it is imposed regardless of whether the parent company was involved in or ought to have had any knowledge of the competition law infringements committed by the subsidiary. Whereas such liability has until recently only been imposed for administrative fines, the Skanska decision changes this. Following this decision it must be assumed that parent companies can also be held vicariously liable for civil liability incurred by a subsidiary. It is pointed out that it is a separate question whether the Akzo-presumption rule, established with regard to the imposition of fines for competition law infringements, can also be applied in a pure civil liability case concerning parental liability. Next, the article discusses whether the results reached in the area of competition law can be transferred to other areas of the law. In this regard, the article analyses recent case law with regard to parental liability for workers’ injuries and environmental damage and compares these areas of the law to competition law. Finally, the article discusses whether the concept of the undertaking can be extended to apply also in situations where companies are not tied by ownership but by contract. In this regard the article focuses on the (possibly) emerging concept of supply chain liability. https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/mclawreview/article/view/2361Competition lawVicarious liabilityGroups of companiesSupply chainsPrivate enforcement
spellingShingle Vibe Ulfbeck
Vicarious Liability in Groups of Companies and in Supply Chains - Is Competition Law Leading the Way?
Market and Competition Law Review
Competition law
Vicarious liability
Groups of companies
Supply chains
Private enforcement
title Vicarious Liability in Groups of Companies and in Supply Chains - Is Competition Law Leading the Way?
title_full Vicarious Liability in Groups of Companies and in Supply Chains - Is Competition Law Leading the Way?
title_fullStr Vicarious Liability in Groups of Companies and in Supply Chains - Is Competition Law Leading the Way?
title_full_unstemmed Vicarious Liability in Groups of Companies and in Supply Chains - Is Competition Law Leading the Way?
title_short Vicarious Liability in Groups of Companies and in Supply Chains - Is Competition Law Leading the Way?
title_sort vicarious liability in groups of companies and in supply chains is competition law leading the way
topic Competition law
Vicarious liability
Groups of companies
Supply chains
Private enforcement
url https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/mclawreview/article/view/2361
work_keys_str_mv AT vibeulfbeck vicariousliabilityingroupsofcompaniesandinsupplychainsiscompetitionlawleadingtheway