Belgian Court of Appeal dismisses European Commission’s multi-million damages claim from elevators cartel

Compass Lexecon assisted one of the elevator and escalator manufacturers during the 16-year running litigation proceedings in Belgium, initiated by a damages claim from the European Commission (‘Commission’). The Belgian Court of Appeal dismissed the Commission’s claim in its entirety in November 2024.

Situation

In 2007, the European Commission fined several manufacturers of elevators and escalators for infringing Article 101 TFEU by bid rigging procurement contracts, increasing prices and making market sharing agreements. As a purchaser of the products itself and on behalf of the other European institutions, the European Commission filed a follow-on damages claim against four lift manufacturers to be compensated for the inflated prices.

Our Role

Compass Lexecon advised one of the elevator and escalator manufacturers during the cartel investigation. Subsequently, we provided economic advice in the context of the damages claim by the European Commission with litigation in Belgium. We analysed the Commission’s damage estimations and produced a rebuttal on the soundness of their calculations. We also provided economic assistance to our client’s legal counsel during the Court hearings.

Outcome

After 16 years of litigation in the Belgian courts, in November 2024, the Belgian Court of Appeal rejected the Commission’s claim completely. This outcome followed an earlier dismissal from the Brussels Commercial Court in 2014. The main arguments from the Appeal Court were (i) that the Commission had failed to prove a causal link between the infringement and potential damage occurred for each of the 20 contracts for which it claimed damages; and (ii) that the Commission’s economic report was unsound. The Appeal Court followed various arguments that Compass Lexecon and economic advisors of other defendants had put forward.

The Team

Compass Lexecon’s team was led by Senior Vice President Nadine Watson, including Sofía Galan, Manuel Mertel, Giulio Paltrinieri, who provided key assistance to the client’s external legal adviser during the Court hearings, Andrea Rodriguez Nieto and Nathan Aubry. The team assisted the client’s external legal counsel from Freshfields, led by Onno Brouwer.