Opinion ID: 757779
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Availability of Money Damages

Text: 40 Plaintiffs also argue that England is inadequate because it is unclear whether an English court will award money damages for a violation of Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty of Rome. In support of their argument, plaintiffs presented a declaration by Alan Rupert Tyrrell, Q.C., an expert on English law. Tyrrell pointed out that no English court has ever awarded money damages in a suit brought under Articles 85 and 86, and plaintiffs argue that the lack of a certain monetary remedy makes England an inadequate forum. 41 However, Tyrrell also admitted that [i]n principle the usual remedies of English law, in particular damages, can as a matter of law be awarded in civil actions in an English Court against a[d]efendant who has infringed Article 85 or 86. Moreover, Tyrrell conceded that it is a position widely held by jurists ... that infringements of Articles 85 and 86 [of the Treaty of Rome] give rise to an action for damages. Indeed, in deciding an interlocutory appeal, the Law Lords of the House of Lords concluded (by a vote of four to one) that damages are available for a violation of Article 86. See Garden Cottage Foods Ltd. v. Milk Mktg. Bd., [1984] 1 AC 130. Although a final judgment was never entered in the case, and the decision is therefore considered dicta, we find the Garden Cottage Foods case highly persuasive on the question of whether monetary damages would be available to plaintiffs in England. Thus, although English courts have not yet awarded damages in an antitrust case, it appears that English courts have the power to do so. See also An Bord Bainne v. Milk Mktg. Bd., [1984] 1 CMLR 519. 42 Plaintiffs also argue that England is inadequate because, even assuming that monetary damages are available, English courts will not award treble damages under the Sherman Act. It is well-established, however, that the unavailability of treble damages does not render a forum inadequate. See Piper, 454 U.S. at 247, 102 S.Ct. 252 (possibility of lower recovery no bar to forum non conveniens ); Transunion, 811 F.2d at 129 (unavailability of RICO treble damages does not render forum inadequate).