EU Directive On Representative Actions Published

Background

The Directive on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers (2020/1828) (Directive) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) on 4 December 2020. It enters into force on 24 December 2020.  EU member states have until 25 December 2022 to transpose the Directive with a further six months to apply it, meaning that widespread collective redress procedures should be available after 25 June 2023. The Directive was presented in April 2018 by the European Commission and is part of the EU's New Deal for Consumers.

The Directive effectively introduces a right of collective redress across the EU, which we previously reported on here. Once Ireland transposes the Directive, it will enable "Qualified Entities" to bring representative actions to seek injunctions, damages and other redress on behalf of a group of consumers who have suffered harm by a trader who has allegedly infringed EU law.