Deadline: 24-Jun-25
The European Commission is requesting applications for Training of National Judges in EU Competition Law.
Objective
- The objective of this call for proposals is to co-finance projects aiming to train national judges in the context of enforcing European competition rules. This includes public and private enforcement of both the Antitrust rules and the State aid rules, thereby increasing the knowledge and know-how of national judges. The final aim is to ensure a coherent and consistent application of EU competition law by national courts.
Priority Themes
- Trainings on the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU and relevant secondary law.
- Applicants are invited to choose at least 3 out of the 7 topics listed below:
- Scope of application of Article 101 (concept of undertaking, concept of agreement and concerted practice)
- Restrictions of competition by object and effect under Article 101;
- Concept of dominance (including market definition and market power analysis) under Article 102;
- Exclusionary and exploitative abuses under Article 102
- Concept of effect on trade between Member States;
- Block exemption1 and guidelines2 for vertical agreements;
- Block exemptions and guidelines for horizontal cooperation agreements3 (including sustainability agreements).
- Applicants are invited to choose at least 3 out of the 7 topics listed below:
- Trainings focusing on procedural safeguards and the effective enforcement of EU competition law.
- Applicants are invited to choose at least 2 out of the 4 topics listed below
- Enforcement powers of national competition authorities (Articles 5, 22 Regulation 1/200347, Articles 6–23 ECN+ Directive5);
- Cooperation and mutual assistance between the Commission and national competition authorities (Articles 11, 12, 13, 22 Regulation 1/2003; Articles 24–29 ECN+ Directive);
- Cooperation between the Commission and the national courts in Member States (Articles 6, 15 and 16 of Regulation 1/2003);
- Procedural standards and fundamental right safeguards in competition law proceedings (Article 2 Regulation 1/2003, Articles 3, 6–12 ECN+ Directive and relevant case law by the EU Courts and the ECtHR).
- Applicants are invited to choose at least 2 out of the 4 topics listed below
- Trainings focusing on national laws implementing Directive 2014/104 on antitrust damages actions.
- Applicants are invited to choose at least 2 out of the 5 topics listed below:
- The disclosure of evidence in proceedings relating to an action for damages;
- The passing on of overcharges and the interplay between damages actions relating to the same infringement but instituted by injured parties on different levels of the supply chain;
- The quantification of antitrust harm in the framework of damages actions, including the application of the methods for quantification identified in the Commission’s Practical Guide on the Quantification of Antitrust Harm;
- The interaction between the public and the private enforcement of competition law, focusing on both the positive interaction (how can claimants and judges benefit from enforcement actions by competition authorities and can consult them) and measures to avoid negative interactions (for example limits on the disclosure of evidence and on joint and several liabilities that flow from the Damages Directive);
- Case management and best practices in dealing with questions of jurisdiction and applicable law and in dealing with the situation of parallel or subsequent proceedings in different Member States.
- Applicants are invited to choose at least 2 out of the 5 topics listed below:
- Trainings focusing on underlying economic principles of competition law.
- Applicants are invited to choose at least one topic:
- Economic principles and economic reasoning (e.g., supply and demand, cost analysis, substitution and strategic interactions in different competition environments, market definition, horizontal and vertically related markets, market power);
- Assessment of economic evidence in antitrust cases (including market definition, market shares, cost measures and price-cost tests in exclusionary and exploitative abuse cases);
- Assessment of economic evidence/studies in antitrust damages litigation and its procedural handling, including a review of currently used estimation methods (qualitative and quantitative), their underlying advantages and limits, as well as the importance of consistency, robustness and replicability of results.
- Applicants are invited to choose at least one topic:
- Trainings focusing on the application of competition law in regulated industries (such as the energy, telecommunications, pharmaceutical sectors) and digital markets.
- Applicants are invited to choose at least one topic:
- Scope of application of competition law in regulated sectors and interplay between competition law and sector-specific regulation, such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA);
- Interplay between IP rights and competition law;
- Market definition in regulated and digital industries (including two or multisided markets, zero price markets);
- Assessment of market power and dominance in regulated industries and digital markets (including regulatory entry barriers, intellectual property rights, direct and indirect network effects, dynamic efficiencies, importance of access to data, single- and multi-homing);
- Recent case law and decisional practice regarding regulated industries and digital markets.
- Applicants are invited to choose at least one topic:
- Training on State Aid and the enforcement role of national courts.
- Applicants must include the topic under letter c and choose at least 1 additional topic listed below (minimum number of topics under this priority is 2):
- Notion of aid (including the rules on Services of General Economic interest);
- The regulations establishing exemptions from the obligation to notify State aid measures to the Commission, i.e. mainly the De minimis Regulation11 and the General Block Exemption Regulation, including its 2023 revision to further facilitate and speed up the green and digital transition;
- The role of national courts in implementing State aid law (based on the notice on the enforcement of State aid law by national courts and on the Recovery notice, as well as practical experiences from national jurisdictions). Particular attention should be paid to the use of cooperation tools16 available to national courts;
- Main aspects of EU procedural rules (such as notification process before the European Commission) and principles on compatibility of State aid.
- Applicants must include the topic under letter c and choose at least 1 additional topic listed below (minimum number of topics under this priority is 2):
Eligible Activities
- Projects must include tailored training activities on EU competition law such as:
- conferences;
- interactive, practice-oriented seminars and workshops;
- joint study visits to EU courts;
- creation of training materials and tools for face-to-face training, blended learning or e-learning such as handbooks, manuals, train-the-trainer events, networking platforms, videos, podcasts, etc. in combination with the organisation of training activities listed above.
- Trainings should be hands-on oriented, include case studies, refer to the relevant case law of the European Court of Justice and include an analysis of relevant EU jurisprudence.
- The environment in which participative training for national judges takes place must be made sufficiently secure to enable participants to freely exchange views and experiences and to learn from one another, without external monitoring or interference. Projects are therefore at best exclusively addressed to national judges.
Expected Impact
- Projects funded under the present call should contribute to the following impacts:
- Improved coherent and consistent application of EU competition laws by national courts in the member states, including State Aid rules through the number of national judges with increased knowledge and know-how.
- Strengthened cooperation and networking possibilities among member states judges reached by the training and awareness raising activities in relation to commonly applicable EU competition laws. Enabling national judges to strive for a coherent jurisprudence when confronted with developments at the interface between competition law and new legal or economic developments.
Eligibility Criteria
- In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
- non-EU countries
- for private bodies: be non-profit making entities
For more information, visit EC.