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This article studies full, adequate and commensurate compensation in EU case law, especially in preliminary rulings by the European Court of Justice. These terms, meant to convey that damages liability for infringements of EU law should be sufficient, are open to interpretation and in practice gain meaning from other concepts, such as recoverable damage. Aspects of the extent of reparation are obscure under EU law and the relevant emphasis of the functions of damages liability - for example, whether a damages award is underpinned by corrective justice or deterrence thinking - are not always clear. National courts dealing with liability issues relating to breaches of EU law must combine EU and national law while evaluating what kind of liability is required. Whether the open nature of the relevant EU law is a problem is open to debate. From a broader perspective, the issue relates to balancing between harmonisation and divergence in the context of the private law effects of breaches of EU law. Requiring full or otherwise sufficient compensation should not be thought to lead to uniform liability across the Union without further clarification of central matters pertaining to, for instance, relevant damage and causal link.
