Product Liability And Class Actions

As in recent years, class actions are anticipated to be an ever-present concern for the automotive sector in 2021, increasingly seeking to certify classes national in scope. While the national scope is, in part, a function of the national distribution and sale of automotive products in Canada, legislation in Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Ontario specifically require proposed representative plaintiffs to provide notice of proceedings to other representative plaintiffs in other jurisdictions with alleged claims or issues of the same or similar subject matters.

With respect to the defence of class actions, courts are expected to engage in a more critical analysis of plaintiffs' theories on liability and damages, particularly in regards to articulating alleged defects and demonstrating a workable methodology to assess and quantify damages on a class-wide basis in 2021. Part of this shift is due to changes in legislation, such as the amendments to the Class