Statement on the draft bill of the Federal Ministry of Justice “Draft Act implementing Directive (EU) 2020/1828 on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC” of the German Nature Conservation Ring (DNR) and the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (Unabhängiges Institut für Umweltfragen e.V.)

The Federal Ministry of Justice publishes a “Draft law on the implementation of Directive (EU) 2020/1828 on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC”. UfU comments on this draft in the current paper.

Summary:
The extension of the rights of associations to bring actions is generally a welcome step towards strengthening consumer rights before the courts. However, the mandate-based approach to redress actions pursued in the draft law implementing the Directive on representative actions clearly fails to achieve the Directive’s objective of implementing an effective representative action procedure for redress decisions at national level. The draft imposes excessively high admissibility hurdles. The scope of application of the redress action is not sufficiently defined and the group of persons entitled to bring an action is too narrow. The filing of claims prior to the issuance of the basic remedy judgment with a quorum of 50 consumers is inappropriate in connection with the lack of legally secure litigation funding. Massive obstacles to representative actions are therefore to be expected. The draft bill falls far short of the existing possibilities to improve consumers’ access to justice and at the same time significantly reduce the burden on the courts.