In relation to the same trucks case, Spanish courts referred one of the cartel damages cases against DAF, Daimler, Iveco, MAN, Volvo-Renault and Scania to the CJEU on 11 March 2021.[1] This was the fourth case that was referred by Spanish courts; prior to this referral the courts of Barcelona, Madrid and Léon also referred questions to the CJEU for preliminary rulings.[2] On this occasion, the court of Barcelona sought clarification on the disclosure rules in the Damages Directive.[3] The claimants wanted to compel truck manufacturers to prepare and disclose data sets. They required a list of the models manufactured by DAF, classified according to the categories used by Spanish authorities, the transfer price for each model and the “total delivery costs”, which is a standard document produced by each manufacturer. The defendants argued that EU law did not require them to produce evidence for claimants. The Spanish courts wished to receive clarification on elements of the Damages Directive as the text appears to support the defence, but a narrow interpretation would make it more difficult for injured parties to claim damages.

[1] Case number C-163/21.

[2] Case numbers C-882/19 (Barcelona), C-30/20 (Madrid) and C-267/20 (Léon).

[3] 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 on the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union.