Bid to write new EU cartel compensation law parked
Neelie Kroes - Photo EC
(BRUSSELS) - The top enforcer for European Union competition law said on Wednesday she will leave to her successor plans allowing business victims of punished cartel operations to claim compensation.
"The proposal is finalised and is ready to be discussed in (the European) Parliament," Neelie Kroes told journalists.
"As we are caretakers now, I will hand it over to my successor" in the next European Commission, which is due to come into office at the start of December, she added.
Dutch commissioner Kroes had said last month that she was still planning to present a controversial proposal which critics say would unleash a flood of US-style civil actions on EU courts.
Kroes told Wednesday's press conference that a revised draft was "more precise" in alleviating such worries and removing the scope for any "idiot" to go hunting for vast pots of money.
"If you have paid too much, you get that money back if that is all done in the correct way," she said.
Kroes has crunched her way through a mass of business and industrial law-breakers during her stint holding one of the top commission portfolios.
Earlier Wednesday, she slapped fines totalling 173 million euros (260 million dollars) on a plastics cartel of companies making products used in everything from credit cards to PVC fake leather.
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