20th April 2011
The European Commission has recently launched a consultation on collective redress with the purpose to identify common legal principles on group actions. This consultation should help examine how such common principles could fit into the EU legal system and into the legal orders of the 27 EU Member States.
A mechanism of collective redress, which would allow all European citizens to bring a group action before the court and ask for illegal behaviour to be stopped and for compensation to be paid to victims in national and cross-border cases, if applied in other areas of law, could be beneficial not only for consumers, but also for workers, vulnerable groups, victims of age discrimination, people suffering from environmental damage etc.
AGE replied to this consultation in its capacity as member of the Financial Services Users Group (FSUG) but also as civil society organisation representing older people.
To read AGE's response to the consultation please click here.
AGE’s contribution was built around the following principles that a European collective redress should:
- Have a broad scope so as to include all areas of consumer rights but also other fields of law of direct relevance to individual citizens;
- Have a compensatory nature covering all types of damages and resulting in fair distribution;
- Cover national and cross border cases which would put all EU citizens on an equal footing;
- Include flexible legal standing rules allowing representation by groups of individuals, individuals, organisations (such as consumer associations and NGOs), trade unions, public authorities, etc;
- Be easily accessible through fast and simple procedures, with opt-out and opt-in procedures depending on the claim and including low risk for claimants;
- Allow the possibility of out-of-court settlement;
- Prevent abuse of the system through safeguard mechanisms;
- Foresee efficient information for victims so that they know their rights and what to do to take part in the action if they so wish;
- Envisage sufficient funding mechanisms.
Please note that the consultation is open until 30th April 2011.
For more information on the added value of a collective redress follow this link.
To read the consultation paper and reply to the consultation please click here.
For more information, please contact Nena Georgantzi at
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