Must-know: The New EU Collective Action

In November 2020, the EU adopted a directive on representative actions for the protection of collective interests of consumers (the "Directive"), which aims to "ensure that at Union and national level at least one effective and efficient procedural mechanism for representative actions for injunctive measures and for redress measures is available to consumers [...]". EU Member States were due to transpose the Directive by 25 December 2022.

The Directive envisions that "Qualified Entities" ("QEs") (e.g. a non-profit organisation protecting the interests of consumers) may request "injunctive" and/or "redress" measures for infringements of EU consumer law. Injunctive measures include provisional and final orders to cease an infringement of EU consumer law and may be granted without any actual loss being sustained by consumers. Redress measures encompass a broad assortment of remedies such as compensation, price reduction or contract termination. QEs may issue local