Summary

In the European Union, questions concerning collective redress by consumers have been dealt with for more than 20 years. Opposition to the imposition of collective legal redress mechanisms is mainly due to the negative image of US collective actions (punitive damages, jurors, large attorney fees, imposition of excessive economic burdens on companies, etc.) and the applicable principle in civil proceedings in the Member States of the European Union, where the courts can normally only be applied to for the protection of one’s own rights.

Today, the collective interests of consumers are governed by Directive 2009/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, which lays down principles regarding injunctions protecting the interests of consumers. The fitness check performed by the European Commission in 2017 confirmed that although the injunctions directive is necessary, the rapid development of this economy and the information society has resulted in a number of significant shortcomings and does not provide adequate redress for consumers.

To ensure that consumers are no longer forced to make their own way in legal courts, the European Commission made the proposal in 2018 to adopt a directive on representative actions, which would protect the collective interests of consumers and repeal the current injunctions directive. This article summarises the central principles of the proposal for the representative actions directive and examines what changes are to be made in Estonian law when the directive is adopted.