Extract

In the absence of strict limitations on standing, the indirect nature of some of the harm in antitrust claims means that other defining features of tortious actions, such as causation, are put to the test. Causation is a legal means of supplying parameters to liability in such circumstances. Quantification of harm could be seen as an economic means of achieving the same result. The standard approach to causation involves distinguishing between so-called ‘factual causation’ and so-called ‘legal causation’. Broadly speaking, the former is an investigation into the factual chain of events which connect the infringement and the harm suffered. It is often described as a but-for test or, more elegantly, a conditio sine qua non. The latter is essentially the imposition of policy limitations on claims by courts. The essential idea behind the conditio sine qua non approach to causation is that without the occurrence of the infringement, the claimant would not have suffered the harm pleaded. Furthermore, causation acts as a parameter to claims in that it helps to determine which party should be held liable for the damage suffered. Thus, it looks in both directions: towards the claimant, who has to show a link between the infringement and the damage he or she has suffered, and towards the defendant, in that helps to attribute liability for the damage.