Leniency PLUS⁺ adresses cartel members who are willing to minimise the risk of being exposed to private damage claims.

The leniency programmes of the European Commission and the Member States do not oblige its participants to compensate for damages caused by the cartel. Different from the situation in the United States, leniency programmes in Europe support private enforcement of antitrust law only to a very limited extent.
Nevertheless, effective decisions of the Commission or the competition authorities in a Member State of the European Community are legally binding on the civil courts in private damage actions in a number of European jurisdictions.
Thus, leniency applicants take the risk of being sued for damages by cartel victims, in particular as cartel members are jointly and severally liable. Therefore cartel members may be confronted with damage claims that have been caused by competitors and not by themselves. This is also valid for leniency-applicants.

CDC’s Leniency PLUS⁺-concept tries to react to this legal situation and the specific combination of interests by creating private law incentives also for cartel members willing to cooperate. For cartel members, this implies the possibility to minimise their risk of being exposed to private damage claims. An essential aspect of Leniency PLUS⁺ is CDC’s commitment that damage actions will only be enforced against other cartel members. Leniency PLUS⁺ therefore helps to get cartel members involved in the process of claims enforcement by creating individual incentives. By introducing Leniency PLUS⁺, CDC contributes to a better reconciliation of leniency programmes of competition authorities and private damage claims. CDC seeks to successfully enforce the claims of cartel victims without preventing cartel members to benefit from the advantages of the public leniency programmes.

In order to preserve an adequate degree of confidentiality, further details regarding the Leniency PLUS⁺-concept can only be discussed bilaterally.