Germany – Recent judgment by Federal Supreme Court: Has access to file for private damage claimants just become easier?
By: Dr. Tobias Caspary, Lars Görlitz
In a widely noticed judgment, the German Federal Supreme Court has recently decided that the cartel authority of the state of Hesse acted unlawfully when categorically denying access to a settlement file to a third party damage claimant. After re-visiting two German landmark cases concerning access to the file in Germany, we briefly summarise the Federal Supreme Court's decision . We conclude that the decision, building on existing practice, strikes the right balance between incentivising cartel participants to come forward on the one hand (i.e., by protecting the integrity of settlement procedures), while acknowledging the need for cartel victims to enjoy effective redress for cartel damages.
