Parliament backs plans for EU 'consumer redress' scheme[fr][de] 

In adopting a wider report on 'EU consumer policy strategy 2007-2013' during their Strasbourg plenary on 20 May, MEPs asked the Commission to carry out "extensive research" into the feasibility of introducing a cross-border collective redress system for consumers before presenting a "coherent solution at European level".

The report, for which Finnish Socialist MEP Lasse Lehtinen was the rapporteur, was adopted by 438 votes in favour to 84 against. There were 166 abstentions.  

'Collective redress' makes it easier for small claimants in cross-border disputes to take action by allowing a large number of small claims to be bundled and brought to court by a third-party representative, such as a recognised consumer organisation. The EU executive suggests individual consumers should be able to engage in collective redress and in early April it said it will propose corrective measures to ensure that individual consumers who are victims of antitrust violations in cross-border cases are compensated (EurActiv 04/04/08). 

The adopted report contains an amendment inserted by the Socialist Group calling for collective redress to be introduced in the EU. But support for collective redress is far from unanimous, with the centre-right EPP-ED Group opting to abstain from the vote. 

Malcolm Harbour, the EPP-ED spokesman on consumer protection, accused the Socialists of "hijacking a very positive report by inserting a call for an entirely untested and potentially very costly legal provision for European-level enforcement of collective rights". Instead, the EPP-ED Group believes the matter should be dealt with at national level. 

Meanwhile, German MEP Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of the liberal ALDE Group warned that "it is difficult to find a legal base in the Treaties as collective redress touches the code of both civil and penal procedure". He called on the Commission to conduct further study on this issue. 

The Commission will release a Communication on collective redress this autumn, Consumers Commissioner Meglena Kuneva announced yesterday.