White Paper for collective redress
The European Commission has presented a White Paper on actions for damages, ’suggesting a new model for achieving compensation for consumers and businesses who are the victims of antitrust violations’. One of the key recommendations is that of collective redress in particular for small value claims.
‘However, safeguards to avoid that such actions would lead to unfounded claims need to be put in place. In the field of antitrust, the Commission therefore recommends allowing only representative actions led, for example, by recognised consumer groups and actions in which victims can choose to participate, as opposed to class actions run by law firms for an unidentified number of claimants.’ (press release, related documents)
The paper follows the Commission’s Green Paper (2005) on the same topic. (press release) See also SJ Berwin LLP’s latest Community Week, today’s The Lawyer for an article by Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP’s Matthew Shankland and Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ remarks on the White Paper.