U.S.-style class actions for France?

✍ Scribed by James D. Rosener

• Book ID: 102296955
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 73 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1044-8136
• DOI: 10.1002/jcaf.20244

✦ Synopsis

I

n his 2005 New Year elocution, French President Jacques Chirac reopened the debate regarding the introduction of class actions into French law, when he called for "a mechanism to enhance consumer protection against unfair practices on certain markets." Apart from specialized areas, France does not feature any class action in which any person can bring a suit in a single jurisdiction on behalf of a group that incurred loss or injury caused by a single party. This means that, in the event of cases characterized by similar questions of law and facts among a class of plaintiffs against a defined group of defendants, each of the claimants must bring his or her own claim against the defendant or defendants. This may result in inconsistent decisions from multiple courts, and each consumer also must bear the fees of the individual action.