Brussels, 06/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - COFACE (the Confederation of Family Organisations in the EU) has welcomed the European Parliament's resolution of 2 February on collective redress, urging the Commission to act (see EUROPE 10545). However; COFACE considers that the document still needs to be fine-tuned. COFACE encourages the Commission to propose a legal instrument which would not only set up a collective redress framework at EU level dealing with EU law infringements but also incite all EU member states to set up a collective redress mechanism in their own country, in full respect of their legal traditions and practices, but abiding by a set of core principles.
In the text voted on by Parliament, COFACE acknowledge its delight that while many EU member states already have collective redress mechanisms in place, no abusive litigation cases have been identified. Another element which has been positively identified is the crucial role of the courts in deciding, for instance, on the admissibility of the claims. COFACE fully supports the need for ADR and the benefits it can bring consumers in terms of costs and time, but wishes to underline that ADR (especially collective ADR) can only work if legal recourse is possible.
COFACE considers that some points in the resolution are disappointing and deplores the fact that only the so-called opt-in was considered as a collective redress mechanism. COFACE considers that judges should also have the discretionary power to decide whether an action would best be served via opt-in or opt-out, and that both mechanisms should therefore be made available in the law. Furthermore, in case of an opt-in procedure, the aim to mediatise sufficiently a claim in order to attract all consumers who have suffered damages without hindering a third party's reputation would be quite difficult and costly to put in place into practice, especially if the potential “victims” are hard to identify. (AN/transl.fl)