For litigators operating in the EU, the potential for a whole new class of opportunity is knocking on the door.
The EU’s Representative Actions Directive required all EU countries to implement a legal framework by June 25th that allows non-profit entities to file cross-border collective actions in mass harm situations, and to introduce a group litigation procedure if none already exists. The European Commission has already started infringement proceedings against 24 of the 27 EU countries for failing to meet the deadline.
Change is coming. And most countries aren’t yet ready for it.
The opportunity is likely to be significant – as we saw from Dieselgate in Germany and the class action regime in Australia. Third party litigation funders are building their resources: Deminor has opened in Hamburg and Madrid in the past 2 years and Omni Bridgeway in Paris last year.
To respond, firms need to be thinking about three things in particular:
- Expertise and resources,
- The need for scale and reach across the EU to handle cases regionally, and
- Technology tools to manage potentially enormous data sets.
The wave is rising: one to watch, or one to catch?
