EU Commission Recommendation on Collective Redress Mechanism

The European Commission has come out today with its communication “Towards a European Horizontal Framework for Collective Redress” and its recommendation “on common principles for injunctive and compensatory collective redress mechanisms in the Member States concerning violations of rights granted under Union Law”. These horizontal instrumens are complemented by a draft directive regarding “damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union”. Continue reading

Hot Topics in Legal Policy: EU Commissioner for Justice Reding on Class Actions in Europe – 2012 German Jurists Forums (Deutscher Juristentag)

Viviane Reding, the Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice, spoke about “Europe, the Law, and the German legal profession: a comment from Luxembourg” at last week’s German Jurists Forum in Munich (see my earlier post on the Forum). The focus of her speech was on the German legal debate on the Euro rescue plans – that’s somewhat off topic in this blog, as important as it is, and we leave it to verfassungsblog.de and others to comment upon. But Viviane Reding devoted a couple of sentences to more mundane issues, such as the plans for group or class actions in the European Union. Here’s what she had to say: Continue reading

Class Actions in Germany: KapMuG Extended Until 2020 – Modest Change of Scope

Kapitalanlegermusterverfahrensgesetz (Capital Market Investors’ Model Proceeding Act), or KapMuG for short, is the closest thing German law has to a class action. In its current form, the Act would have expired on October 30, 2012. Early on, there was consensus that the Act would be extended, and German parliament has now decided to do so, for another eight years, but with some modifications.

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