Debate: Representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers
Date: TUESDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2020
Speaker: Didier Reynders
Language: FR

Une fois formellement adoptée et mise en œuvre, la directive relative aux actions représentatives offrira une protection solide aux consommateurs européens. Elle améliorera considérablement la mise en œuvre concrète des règles de protection des consommateurs dans toute l’Europe et pourrait ouvrir la voie à d’autres initiatives visant à améliorer l’accès à la justice dans d’autres domaines. Avec cette directive, nous envoyons un signal clair aux citoyens européens: l’Union européenne protège leurs intérêts et notamment leurs droits en tant que consommateur et l’accès à la justice. The directive creates a procedural mechanism of collective redress. It needs to respect the principle of procedural autonomy of the Member States, and their legal traditions. The objective was to allow the new mechanisms to be integrated as smoothly as possible in their national rules of civil procedure. On the other hand, the directive harmonises key aspects of the procedure ensuring a common denominator across the EU, in terms of both rights and safeguards. About the level of harmonisation, I want to add that with this directive the Commission always had the objective of preserving well-functioning national systems which can have different forms of collective redress. Member States can maintain existing systems and introduce new ones. The directive introduces a specific model of representative actions where qualified entities can seek injunctive and redress measures. Member States that already have representative actions have the choice to transpose this mechanism separately from the existing mechanism or to modify existing mechanisms to match the directive’s requirements.  When modifying existing mechanisms Member States have to introduce the missing elements, especially new elements that relate to cross-border actions. Importantly, the mutual recognition of qualified entities from other Member States should ensure for the purpose of cross-border actions under the conditions listed in the directive that this builds on the model already introduced by the Injunctions Directive.  Other features of the directive concerning, for example, the funding of actions or limitation periods may also require some modifications in Member States. However, the directive is not overly prescriptive. It provides the main elements of a general procedural framework but leaves the details to the national system in order to make the mechanism workable in practice. It is therefore likely that Member States only have to make a minimum of changes to their existing systems, and of course the Commission will assist the Member States throughout the transposition process, notably with dedicated workshops. Je voudrais conclure, Monsieur le Président, en remerciant une nouvelle fois le Parlement européen pour son engagement dans ce dossier et pour le débat que nous avons encore tenu ce matin. Je me réjouis de poursuivre notre excellente coopération dans les dossiers de protection des consommateurs, notamment dans la mise en œuvre du récent Agenda du consommateur, dont nous avons eu l’occasion de débattre hier soir. De plus, comme je l’ai évoqué hier, nous poursuivrons aussi nos actions pour changer le comportement des entreprises à travers l’initiative sur la gouvernance durable que la Commission présentera l’année prochaine.