E.U. commissioner mulls introducing mass torts; 'Collective redress' suits not class actions: Aide.(International News)

Business Insurance, March, 2007 by Mitchell, Rick

Byline: RICK MITCHELL BRUSSELS, Belgium-The new European Commissioner for consumer affairs is mulling a consumer protection system that could bring a form of class actions to European law. Though the Commissioner's office declines to use the term "class actions,'' Bulgarian European Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said in a speech earlier this month to the European Consumer Consultative Group that she is "in favor of considering possible action on collective redress, both for competition infringements and, for example, small claims.'' As Ms.

Kuneva noted in her confirmation hearings before the European Parliament last year, some member states already have, to varying degrees, "mechanisms of collective redress,'' and others are considering introducing such...

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