European Collective Redress: A Status Quaestionis

Abstract

This descriptive paper provides an unpretentious overview of recent collective redress developments in Europe, in particular on the European level and in four European jurisdictions. The aim is simply to describe recent legislative initiatives and reforms. The facts and nothing but the facts. Particular attention is paid to the recent EC Recommendation on common principles for injunctive and compensatory collective redress mechanisms. Its goal is not to harmonise the national systems, but to list some common, non-binding, principles relating both to judicial and out-of-court collective redress that Member States should take into account when crafting such mechanisms. At the same time, the EC issued a proposal for a Directive on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions, which is also briefly analysed. Finally, national collective redress developments in four European jurisdictions are described: the recent amendments to the 2005 Dutch Collective Settlements Act and the 2005 German Act on Model Case Proceedings in the Capital Markets (KapMuG), and the recent legislative reforms in France and Belgium to introduce a consumer class action.