Is the EU ready to adopt US-style class actions? David Greene thinks not
The European Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Meglena Kuneva, has recently published her programme for the coming year which includes the introduction of class actions to improve consumers’ access to courts throughout the EU. This follows proposals from the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kos, that US-style class actions should be introduced throughout the EU for the purpose of encouraging private enforcement of competition legislation in the courts.
Commissioner Kuneva has to a large extent adopted the proposals in the Competition Commissioner’s green paper, Damages, Action for Breach of the EC Antitrust Rules, which spelt out the adoption of US-style class actions in some detail. The green paper followed an earlier consultation paper, Study on the Conditions of Claims for Damages in case of Infringement of EC Competition Rules (2004), which reviewed systems for private redress in competition law throughout the EU and highlighted recognised gaps in the regulatory regime.
The European Commission and our own Office of Fair Trading have made it quite clear that they do not have the resources either
