Group Action
With the Single Market and new methods of communication, European consumers are being offered more and more goods and services from professionals throughout the European Union. But when things go wrong, the problems encountered by consumers when trying to seek redress are a real obstacle to the role they are supposed to play as «drivers of the European economy». The products or services bought can turn out to be faulty, dangerous or companies can apply unlawful contractual conditions. The costs of legal proceedings are often higher than the compensation which consumers could receive. Faced with this situation, consumers give up and do not seek redress even when the same illegal behaviour of a trader harms a number of them.
What are our objectives?
We aim to…
... Ensure that all EU consumers be fully compensated when they have suffered damages due to illegal practices.
What is needed?
Consumer access to justice and compensation will be improved if:
- A European Group Action procedure is established for national and cross-border cases, allowing a number of consumers to bring a case together before the court to obtain compensation for a damage caused by the sametrader.
- Such a tool would:
- - Allow consumers to be really compensated for the damages they have suffered;
- - Improve the functioning of the Internal Market as consumers will have much more confidence shopping across borders;
- - Facilitate access to justice;
- - Minimise litigation costs for both consumers and defendants;
- - Result in less overloading of courts;
- - Also be advantageous to compliant businesses.
- A European Group Action for victims of anticompetitive practices is established, recognising the right to compensation for all victims of such practices.
To contact our experts on the issue: groupaction[AT]beuc.eu*
Conference on “Competition and Consumers in the 21st century”, 21 octobre 2009 :
The participants at the Conference organised on 21 October 2009 by the European Commission on “Competition and Consumers in the 21st century” have adopted by an overwhelming majority the following statement on the proposal of BEUC’s President Paolo Martinello:
“The European Commission should propose, and the European Parliament and Member States should adopt, as a matter of urgency, a system for effective collective redress for Europe”.
200 participants attended the Conference, including representatives from National Competition Authorities, consumer associations, judges, academics and lawyers. The aim of the event has been to stress that consumers are at the heart of the European Commission’s competition policy and that consumer welfare is a key concern for the European Commission in this difficult economic context.
As Commission Kroes rightly said “Consumers and taxpayers should not be left paying the bill for mistakes they did not make”.
Find out more in our recent documents
Read our letter sent to Commissioner Almunia regarding the absence of any initiative from the European Commission in the field of private enforcement
To know more about our Ten Golden Rules for a European Group Action, read our brochure
Read our letter sent to President Barroso regarding the proposal on private damages actions
To know more about our Ten Golden Rules for a European Group Action, read our brochure
Group Action: The Missing Tool. BEUC’s Answer to DG SANCO’s Green Paper on Consumer Collective Redress
Damages Actions for Breach of EC Antitrust Rules: BEUC Response to the White Paper
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