(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission unveiled plans on Thursday to give consumers and businesses greater powers to sue companies caught running illegal cartels or abusing their market power.

Until now, consumers and businesses in most EU countries have had little legal recourse against companies that participate in illegal antitrust activites, unlike their counterparts in the United States.

The initiative won a warm welcome from the BEUC European consumers association, which said it was long overdue.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told journalists she wanted consumers and businesses to join regulators in the fight against companies that conspire to illegally squash competition.

"Each year in Europe we see businesses and families and individuals losing billions of euros, because some companies break the competition rules and we have not found a way to compensate the victims," Kroes said.

"Those victims -- it could be you, your family or your business -- do not have access to justice," she told a news conference.

Under her proposals, consumers and businesses could seek compensation for either the higher price they paid or the loss of profit they suffered due to antitrust activity, plus interest on the amount.

However, compensation would not be allowed to exceed the value of the loss and interest as in the United States, where double and even triple damages can be awarded as punitive measures against companies that breach antitrust rules.

Kroes also opened the door to the possibility of collective action suits against companies that participate in antitrust activity by either forming a group to make a claim or through a representative body like a consumer association.

While collective action is common in the United States, in Europe its use is limited to Britain and Germany, Kroes said.

The proposals also aimed to make getting compensation easier by requiring the disclosure of evidence so that damage seekers can prepare their case better.

Although the proposals would bring Europe a big step closer to practices common in the United States, Kroes insisted that they would not reproduce perceived excesses of the US system, where a culture of suing and big class action suits are common.

"The European culture is different from the United States, and that doesn't mean that it is better, it's different," said Kroes.

The BEUC European consumers association said the package would finally translate Europe's tough antitrust policies into real benefits for consumers.

"For what seems like an eternity, it has been claimed that consumers are benefiting from the competition policy of the European Union," BEUC director general Monique Goyens said in a statement.

"Until now, these benefits have often been purely theoretical," she said. "This initiative will allow these theories to become reality, and finally allow victims of anti-competitive practices to be compensated.

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