12 November 2019

Insurance Europe: Business federations raise significant concerns about Council's proposed changes to EC representative actions proposal

A group of 21 business federations — including Insurance Europe — have written to the Council of the EU calling for at least an impact assessment to be carried out on its proposed major changes to the European Commission’s proposal for a directive on representative actions.

The co-signatories all share significant concerns over proposed changes introduced by the Council under the Romanian and Finnish presidencies.

For example, the new distinction between domestic and cross-border qualified entities (ie, the entities that can bring representative actions on behalf of consumers) and the rules which are therefore applicable to them, are causing significant concern for the signatories.

It is feared that without universal application of the criteria applicable to qualified entities, as in the Commission’s proposal, there will be significant forum shopping to jurisdictions with the lowest standards, jeopardising the best interests of consumers and defendant traders.

Full joint statement on Insurance Europe

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