Collective redress in Europe
Abstract
Collective redress is not a novel concept in the European Union. Existing EU legislation and international agreements require Member States to provide for collective injunctive relief in certain areas (see e.g. the Directive on injunctive relief in the area of consumer law). Also, procedures for the collective claim of compensatory relief in certain areas have been introduced in the majority of Member States. However, the available procedures for collective redress vary widely throughout the EU, both as to their features and as to their effectiveness. This diversity implies that European rights are unequally enforced throughout the EU and sometimes the useful effect of those rights risks being jeopardised.
As a further step in remedying these deficiencies, the European Commission will hold a public consultation on the common principles of collective redress which any future EU initiative would respect. The objective is to ensure from the outset that any future sector specific proposal on collective redress, while serving the purpose of ensuring a more effective enforcement of EU law, fits well into the EU legal tradition and into the set of procedural remedies already available for the enforcement of EU law.