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have the same scope as that in the public procedure. The implication of the case can
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be inferred as that subsidiary can now be brought into action for damages of the

infringement committed by its parent company. The preliminary reference from the
Spanish Court on 3 December 2019 in Case C-882/19 Sumal S.L. vs Mercedes Benz

Trucks España, S.L concerns with the exact question, whether a subsidiary could be
held liable for its parent company antitrust infringement according to the single economic
entity doctrine.

II. The notion of undertaking in EU competition law

Undertaking as a single economic entity
In EU competition law, the undertaking is identified as the entity responsible

for any anticompetitive conducts. The exact definition of the concept is nowhere indicated
in the TFEU. However, it emerged from the CJEU case law. It can be observed that
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the CJEU applies an economic approach when determining the scope of the undertaking.

Therefore, legal personality is irrelevant when considering whether various entities,
even though having separate legal personalities, belong in the same undertaking subject

to competition provisions or not. In that sense, The CJEU, along with The Commission,
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determine that a parent company and subsidiary constitute a single economic entity,
and the former could be liable for the infringement of the competition law committed

by the latter. In addition, the CJEU also mentions the parent company’s power to exert
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decisive influence, granting the ability to control over its subsidiary in order to establish

7 Case C-724/17 Vantaan kaupunki v Skanska Industrial Solutions Oy and Others ECLI:EU:C:2019:204
8 Florence Thépot, The Interaction Between Competition Law and Corporate Governance - Opening the
‘Black Box’ (Cambridge University Press 2019) p.34
9 Jaime Folguera, Edurne Navarro, Competition Law Infringements: Has the Application of the Parental
Liability Doctrine Gone Too Far? (2018) Festschrift für Dirk Schroeder. Europäisches, deutsches und internationales
Kartellrecht. Juliane Kokott (Herausgeber), Petra Pohlmann (Herausgeber), Romina Polley (Herausgeber). Köln:
Otto Schmidt KG, p.578
10 Case 48/69 Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) v the Commission ECLI:EU:C:1972:70, Joined Cases
C231/11 P to C233/11 P Siemens AG Österreich supra (n.3), Case C-625/13 P. Villeroy & Boch AG v Commission.
ECLI:EU:C:2017:52

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