ABSTRACT
In 1992, the European Court ruled that where a breach of EC law by a member state infringes an individual’s rights, that individual can sue the state for compensation in the national courts. In more recent cases the European Court has made it clear that to succeed in a claim for damages against the state, an individual will have to show that the following conditions are fulfilled:
• condition 1 - the law infringed was intended to give rights to individuals; • condition 2 - the content of those rights is identifiable on the basis of the
provisions of the directive alone; • condition 3 - the breach was sufficiently serious; • condition 4 - there was a direct causal link between the breach and the
loss or damage suffered by the individual.
