Communication: Towards a European horizontal framework for collective redress

EU justice policy aims to develop a genuine area of freedom, security and justice that serves citizens and businesses. Both citizens and businesses should be able to obtain effective redress, in particular in cross-border cases and in cases where the rights conferred on them by European Union law have been infringed. This may require procedural law solutions on the basis of EU law.

Work carried out in the area of procedural law so far has produced a number of solutions facilitating effective redress: the European Small Claims Procedure is a simplified and cost-effective European civil procedure that facilitates consumer claims resulting from cross-border sales. The European Order for Payment Procedure contributes to fast cross-border debt recovery, making it easier for businesses to manage their claims. The Mediation Directive, which is applicable in all cross-border civil disputes, promotes Alternative Dispute Resolution that saves costs and efforts and reduces the time needed for cross-border litigation.

In the field of consumer policy the recently adopted Directive on consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution together with Regulation on consumer Online Dispute Resolution go further by requiring Member States to ensure that contractual disputes between a consumer and a trader arising from the sale of goods or the provision of services can be submitted to an alternative dispute resolution entity.

In 2011, the Commission carried out a horizontal public consultation ‘Towards a coherent European approach to collective redress’. Its aim was, inter alia, to identify common legal principles on collective redress and to examine how such common principles could fit into the EU legal system and into the legal orders of the 27 EU Member States. The consultation also explored the areas in which different forms of collective redress could help to better enforce EU legislation or protect the rights of EU citizens and businesses.

This Communication reports the main views expressed in the public consultation and reflects the position of the Commission on some central issues regarding collective redress. It is accompanied by a Commission Recommendation that all EU Member States have national collective redress systems based on a number of common European principles. The Recommendation advocates a horizontal approach, and its content therefore also applies to the field of competition law, an area for which specific rules are included in Directive 2014/104/EU on certain rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the EU. While the Recommendation encourages all Member States to follow the principles suggested therein, the Directive leaves it to Member States whether or not to introduce collective redress actions in the context of the private enforcement of competition law.

ESO Records

Commission recommends Member States to have collective redress mechanisms in place to ensure effective access to justice http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-commission-recommends-member-states-to-have-collective-redress-mechanisms-in-place-to-ensure-effective-access-to-justice/

---