MEMBERS NEWS - 21.03.2019

The Dutch Senate has approved a law to make it possible for consumers to go to court as a group if they suffered mass harm at the hands of a trader. Collective redress has come to the Netherlands!

Congratulations to Consumentenbond which has fought for thirty years to get this law passed!

The new law on group actions makes it possible for a judge to determine whether a company has violated the rules and decide what constitutes appropriate compensation within a single procedure. The previous law didn’t allow collective compensation. If a judge ruled that a company was liable, the two parties would have to try to find a settlement. If this failed, consumers could only litigate individually. As a result, many consumers never received compensation. The new law applies to cases that took place on or after 15 November 2016.