Collective redress or collective actions are a form of civil litigation used to group together claimants, often consumers, who have all allegedly been harmed in the same way. These lawsuits are similar to ’class actions‘ commonly used in the United States. Some form of collective redress can now be found in almost every Member State of the European Union (Member State). On April 11, 2018, the European Commission released a comprehensive consumer protection policy package known as the ’New Deal for Consumers’. This package contains a proposal for a directive on representative actions, which would introduce an EU-wide system for consumer collective actions.
This survey report revealed that:
- Only 13 percent of European consumers support the proposal as currently drafted.
- 67 percent agree that without the introduction of safeguards, the European Commission should not introduce collective actions in the EU.
- 82 percent agree that collective action safeguards should be made consistent across the EU.
In addition, significant majorities of EU consumers expressed support for specific safeguards not currently included in the proposal. These safeguards would:
- Ensure consumers “opt-in” to these cases rather than allow lawyers to include consumers in lawsuits without their knowledge (77 percent).
- Require cases to meet some minimum standards before a judge will allow them to go forward (75 percent).
- Obligate parties in the dispute to show they have tried to resolve their differences before bringing a lawsuit (74 percent).
- Mandate that only legitimate consumer interest groups can initiate cases (65 percent).
- Require that all third party litigation funders be accredited or licensed and overseen by a government agency (72 percent).
