Collective actions for the compensation of consumers’ individual damages: a review from the civil law perspective

Abstract

After explaining some elementary procedural concepts, essential to understand the regulation of the matter, this paper focuses on the study of the regulatory peculiarities of one of the main types of collective actions: the so-called class actions for damages. The study compares the differences between the class actions for damages and the injunction actions, specifies the scope in which the event must occur for the viability of the class actions for damages, identifies and analyzes the different active legitimated to sue, studies the development of the process when this type of actions are exercised and the many questions that arise from the execution of the sentence in a collective process of damages. In addition to the main doctrine and jurisprudence on the subject, the study highlights and examines the new developments introduced in this area by the Directive 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and of the Council on November 25, 2020, related to representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers.