Objective

This half-day online conference will begin with a discussion of national experiences in dealing with mass claims. It will then outline the state of implementation of the Directive on Representative Actions (EU) 2020/1828 which should have been transposed into national law by 25 December 2022. 

This deadline was met by only a few EU Member States. By 25 June 2023, when national transitional provisions should have entered into force in EU Member States, the transposition process was uneven across EU Member States and is still ongoing.

The conference will examine some of the key issues, in particular the legal standing of qualified entities and litigation funding, including the transparency of funding sources. Finally, it will present the new EC-REACT online platform.
 

Key topics

• National experiences
• Implementing the Representative Actions Directive
• Preparing for upcoming representative actions
• Litigation funding and transparency of funding sources
• The Representative Actions Collaboration Tool (EC REACT)

Who should attend?

Legal practitioners specialised in the field of consumer law and policy; litigators who lead mass damage cases involving consumers, data protection or shareholders’ claims; in-house counsel in the financial or insurance sectors; representatives of business and consumer organisations; judges; ministry officials; academics.
 

Interactive online conference

The conference will be hosted on the Zoom videoconferencing platform. The highest security settings will be applied. You will be able to interact immediately and directly with our top-level speakers and other participants. We will make the most of the technical tools available to deliver an intensive, interactive experience.

Speakers

Susanne Augenhofer, Professor, University of Innsbruck; Project Reporter “Third-Party Funding of Litigation”, European Law Institute, Vienna

Alexandre Biard, Senior Legal Officer, Team Leader, The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), Brussels

Susan Dunn, Founder, Harbour Litigation Funding, London

Jolanda Girzl, Vice-Chair of BusinessEurope Consumer Marketing Working Group; Senior Policy Counsel, Swedish Trade Federation, Stockholm

Christopher Hodges OBE, Emeritus Professor of Justice Systems, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford

Xandra Kramer, Professor, Erasmus School of Law, University of Rotterdam; Part‑time Professor, Utrecht University

Jagna Mucha, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw

Małgorzata Posnow-Wurm, Legal Officer, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission, Brussels

Astrid Stadler, Professor, University of Constance