American law firms are braving European shores in ever increasing numbers, bringing with them knowledgeable lawyers who have experience this area, and are poised and hoping to be ideally based to capitalise when the time comes.



Addressing a conference on Collective Redress last year, Meglena Kuneva, European Commissioner for Consumer Protection, tried to ease nerves, saying that she did not anticipate the advent of class actions on her watch.



So how exactly does Ms Kuneva plan to strengthen consumer law rights? She suggests that there should be a system of group action whereby consumers with similar claims about the same company come together - either represented by an EU body or their own national consumer body. “The commission is intent on creating a single set of consumer rights and obligations throughout the EU”, she said.



Kuneva also addressed the fact that almost half of Member States have at present systems of collective redress – the rest do not. This is a clear sign of inequity and inefficiency across the EU, she said.



It seems that at least some of the drive behind the speech was to let US firms, who seem to want to bring their class action system to Europe, know that this will not be the case. At present France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland all have systems which allow for some kind of collective redress.



Kuneva stated that there were many possible options to consider, ranging from a market-led approach to the establishment of an out-of-court collective redress scheme; a convergence process leading to the extension of Member states or a EU consumer collective redress scheme. Near the end of her speech she definitively stated that any form of “collective redress [would] not be punitive.”



There would be advantages to the introduction of a class action system in Europe. Firstly, it would ensure there was access to justice for those who had been wronged. It would also lead to legal certainty throughout Europe with a more reliable procedural mechanism that could be used. Also, it would mean that the expense of parallel actions did not occur and it would also encourage some element of corporate responsibility even if this was punitively based.



The downsides are also clear to see. The whole system is very lawyer-driven and in many cases can be seen to benefit lawyers more than clients. Also, when a large amount of claims are grouped together it can make it easy for weaker and unjustified claims to be lobbed in the pile and put through without proper consideration. The size of the group can have also an unfair influence on the whole process.



Finally, would it place an unfair responsibility on corporations and companies?
Class actions are a hot topic of discussion within legal circles, but while such may ensure greater consumer protection; legal practitioners in Britain are keen to avoid US-style litigation culture which many fear will come about as a result of collective redress and will in turn create a demand for these types of cases.

Paul McIndoe is an online, freelance writer from Scotland. When not writing, he enjoys playing golf and is a keen gardener.

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