“Heureka Group (Comparateurs de prix en ligne)”

Article 10 Directive 2014/104/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union, and Article 102 TFEU and the principle of effectiveness must be interpreted as precluding national legislation, as interpreted by the relevant national courts, which lays down a three-year limitation period applicable to actions for damages in respect of continuing infringements of EU competition law rules and which:

starts to run, independently and separately for each partial occurrence of harm resulting from such an infringement, from the moment when the injured party knew, or could reasonably be expected to have known, of the fact that it had suffered that partial harm and the identity of the party liable to pay compensation for that harm, without the injured party having had knowledge of the fact that the behaviour concerned constituted an infringement of the competition rules and without that infringement having come to an end, and

Furthermore, Article 10 of Directive 2014/104 also precludes such rules in so far as they do not provide for the limitation period to be suspended, at the very least, until one year after the date on which the decision finding that infringement has become final.