Trend Report - Almost 5 Years Of Class Actions Under The WAMCA: What Is New?

Almost 5 years ago, the Act on Collective Damages in Class Actions (Dutch acronym WAMCA) entered into force in the Netherlands. With the introduction of the WAMCA interest organizations have the possibility to seek collective monetary damages. In exchange, the WAMCA introduced stricter and additional admissibility requirements for interest organizations to comply with. In addition, the WAMCA introduces a new procedural regime for handling mass claims.

In this trend report, we reflect on various relevant developments of the first 5 years of WAMCA case law and present some lessons learned for the class action practice in the Netherlands.

Extensive use of the WAMCA for variety of purposes