Neue Richtlinie zur EU-Sammelklage: Verbraucherrechte gestärkt!

European Union strengthens consumer rights.

With the European class action, consumers will be able to enforce their legal claims against companies more easily in the future. A new EU directive on collective actions provides that consumer protection organizations will be able to sue for damages directly in the future, thus going much further than the model declaratory action in Germany.

With the new instrument of model declaratory action against Volkswagen In 2018, we entered new legal territory and made legal history. With our support, the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) reached a groundbreaking out-of-court settlement in March 2020 with compensation for more than 200,000 cheated car buyers in diesel emissions scandal negotiated. Class action lawsuits, which were previously only possible in France, Italy and Spain, are now also becoming a reality at the European level.

Diesel emissions scandal sparked European initiative

In 2018, under the impression of the VW emissions scandal proposed to allow class action lawsuits across Europe. "Cases like Dieselgate have shown that it is high time to give consumers tools to enforce their rights," it said. Justice and Consumer Protection Commissioner Vera Jourová to the point. On June 22, 2020, the EU states and the European Parliament agreed on the directive for European representative actions. The EU states must now implement it into national law within 2 years.

Europe-wide collective actions possible in many consumer protection issues

Consumers in Europe will be able to enforce their rights better in the future. The collective action allows consumer protection organizations to bundle customer complaints for violations of consumer protection regulations in the EU and to sue a company on behalf of the injured party, for example for damages, rescission, subsequent performance or injunctive relief. This applies to key consumer protection issues, financial services, data protection, telecommunications, transport, energy, the environment and health and expressly includes the rights of air and train passengers.

EU class action eliminates weakness of model declaratory action

The European class action lawsuit offers consumers greater advantages than the model declaratory action in Germany. In this country, consumer protection organizations can only have a court determine that a company has harmed its customers. However, customers must then sue for compensation individually. The European solution now provides that the consumer protection organizations entitled to sue can directly seek compensation on behalf of consumers.

"The model declaratory action was the first time that consumers in Germany were able to defend themselves against fraud together. Against this background, the new EU class action is a milestone for consumer protection in Europe. Especially since it eliminates a weak point of the model declaratory action and provides direct solutions, such as compensation payments. Companies will therefore think more carefully in the future about deceiving their customers as persistently as the car companies did in the diesel emissions scandal."

Partner Dr. Marco Rogert