- Volume 6 (2022), Issue 1
- Vol. 6 (2022), No. 1
- >
- Pages 98 - 103
- pp. 98 - 103
The Theory of Economic Unit and the ‘Downward’ Liability of Subsidiaries for the Sins of Their Parent Companies: Better Not! (C-882/19 Sumal)
Case C‑882/19 Sumal, S.L. v Mercedes Benz Trucks España, S.L., Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 6 October 2021
By judgment of 6 October 2021, in the Sumal case, the Court of Justice ruled that the victim of an anticompetitive infringement may bring an action for damages, either against a parent company who has been addressed by an infringement decision of the European Commission, or against a subsidiary which is not referred to in that decision. In order to do so, those two entities have to be part of the same economic unit and there has to be a specific link between the economic activity of that subsidiary and the subject matter of the infringement for which the parent company was held to be responsible.