A legal action under which a group of people who claim they have been adversely affected sue the alleged perpetrator collectively.

Class action arbitration has been common in US courts for decades, beginning with the US Supreme Court’s decision in Green Tree Financial Corp v Bazzle 539 U.S. 444 (2003) . US courts have held that class actions can be resolved by arbitration if the parties have an arbitration agreement that permits it. However, thorny questions remain as to what constitutes an agreement to arbitrate a class action and whether the courts or the arbitral tribunal decide if there is such an agreement. Nonetheless, several major arbitral institutions have adopted class arbitration rules. Note: the US judgments referred to in this Practice Note are not reported by LexisNexis® UK. What is class action dispute resolution? Class actions resolve similar claims by a large number of claimants in a single case. The process permits one or more ‘representative plaintiffs’ to sue on behalf of similarly situated claimants. The representative plaintiff(s) begin by asking the court

Law360: Government plans to nullify a UK Supreme Court decision that threatened the status of many litigation funding agreements, will provide certainty for claimants when they pass, but the timing of the legislation has implications for the status of legal challenges now underway, lawyers say.

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to class actions in Australia published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (Law stated at: 14 October 2022). Authors: Clayton Utz—Andrew Morrison; Colin Loveday 1. Outline the organisation of your court system as it relates to collective or representative actions (class actions). In which courts may class actions be brought? In Australia, a statutory regime exists in the Federal Court of Australia for representative proceedings. The regime is prescribed in Part IVA of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) (representative proceedings). Very similar provisions exist in one of the state courts, the Supreme Court of Victoria – Part 4A of the Supreme Court Act 1986 (Vic). Since March 2011, the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Court has had a separate class action procedure. It allows class actions to be brought where claims are based on negligence or for breaches of New South Wales statutes. There are several significant differences between the New South Wales class action procedure and the

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to class actions in Belgium published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (Law stated at: 6 October 2022). Authors: White & Case—Olivier Vanhulst; Nicolas Vande Velde; Julien Hislaire 1. Outline the organisation of your court system as it relates to collective or representative actions (class actions). In which courts may class actions be brought? According to article XVII.35 of the Belgian Code of Economic Law (BCEL) and article 633-ter of the Belgian Judicial Code, the Enterprise Court of Brussels and, in case of appeal, the Court of Appeal of Brussels, have exclusive jurisdiction to hear class actions. Finally, a decision from the Court of Appeal of Brussels could be challenged before the Court of Cassation. This recourse is however limited to the review of legal or procedural errors. 2. How common are class actions in your jurisdiction? What has been the recent attitude of lawmakers and the judiciary to class actions? So far, few class actions have been initiated. More

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to class actions in Canada published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (Law stated at: 23 September 2020). Authors: Lavery Lawyers—Myriam Brixi 1. Outline the organisation of your court system as it relates to collective or representative actions (class actions). In which courts may class actions be brought? Canada has a federal system of government. Private law and civil remedies are the primary responsibility of each province and territory, each of which has its own court system. Each provincial or territorial court of superior jurisdiction has the inherent (and in most cases, statutory) jurisdiction to hear collective or class action claims on any subject except those that are specifically allocated to another court or tribunal by statute (eg, small claims courts, which hear civil matters involving claims below a set monetary value). As a result, virtually all civil claims, including class actions, may be brought in these provincial or territorial superior courts. It should also be noted that all Canadian provincial

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to class actions in Greece published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (Law stated at: 3 April 2023). Authors: Moussas and Partners Law Firm—Nicholas Moussas; Maria Malikouti; Charalampos Kondis; Christina Petra Grigoriadou; Evelina Leontiou 1. Outline the organisation of your court system as it relates to collective or representative actions (class actions). In which courts may class actions be brought? Collective actions are mainly provided for under the Greek Consumer Protection Law (Law 2251/1994). Recently the relevant framework underwent amendment as per the enacted Law 5019/2023 transposing Directive (EU) 2020/1828 on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC. The new law includes certain provisions regulating collective actions, which are re-named as 'representative actions' and will enter into force on 26 June 2023. Wherever the current framework differs from the framework that will enter into force on 26 June 2023, we shall refer both to the current and the amended status.  Collective

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to class actions in India published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (Law stated at: 28 September 2022). Authors: Krishnamurthy & Co—Ayush Agarwala; Arushi Kaulaskar 1. Outline the organisation of your court system as it relates to collective or representative actions (class actions). In which courts may class actions be brought? Class actions in India emancipate from various legislations, such as the Companies Act, 2013, Civil Procedure Code, 1908, Competition Act, 2002, Consumer Protection Act, 2013, Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and the Constitution of India, 1950 as follows: • The Civil Procedure Code, 1908 (CPC) empowers the civil courts in India (District Court and High Courts of certain states) to entertain suits filed in a representative capacity on behalf of a class of persons; • The Constitution of India, 1950 (Constitution) empowers the High Courts of the state and Supreme Court of India to entertain proceedings (public interest litigation and writ petitions) initiated by a class of persons having similar case of action;

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to class actions in Japan published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (Law stated at: 21 September 2021). Authors: Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu—Oki Mori; Mai Umezawa 1. Outline the organisation of your court system as it relates to collective or representative actions (class actions). In which courts may class actions be brought? Japan has no statutory class action legislation; however, Japanese law permits lawsuits filed by multiple plaintiffs. In addition, there exist special acts that permit particular organisations to represent the inter­ests of consumers by bringing a claim as a plaintiff. Herein, we explain in detail the distinction between litigation carried out by a qualified consumer organisation (QCO) and court proceedings carried out by a specified qualified consumer organisation (SQCO), which are special liti­gation proceedings created to protect consumer interests that may be filed with any district court that has proper jurisdiction.   Lawsuits filed by multiple plaintiffs When the number of victims who can be co-litigants is considerable,

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to class actions in Mexico published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (Law stated at: 13 October 2022). Authors: SEPLAW Sepúlveda y Díaz Noriega SC—Alfonso Sepúlveda; Habib Díaz; Luis Fuentes 1. Outline the organisation of your court system as it relates to collective or representative actions (class actions). In which courts may class actions be brought? Mexican class actions must be filed before federal courts. Mexico is divided into 32 states, which have their own civil procedural codes. Class actions are regulated in the Federal Civil Procedures Code, which gives exclusive jurisdiction to the federal courts. 2. How common are class actions in your jurisdiction? What has been the recent attitude of lawmakers and the judiciary to class actions? Class actions were enacted in Mexico in 2011, although there were some prior antecedents of 'class' litigation before that date. Being a recent enactment, class action litigation is incipient and not yet fully developed; however, the judiciary branch has been very active

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to class actions in Netherlands published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (Law stated at: 24 October 2022). Authors: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer—Jeroen van Hezewijk; Basya Klinger 1. Outline the organisation of your court system as it relates to collective or representative actions (class actions). In which courts may class actions be brought? The Netherlands is divided into 11 districts. Each district has its own court. Appeals against judgments issued by the district courts can be lodged at the relevant court of appeal. There are four courts of appeal. There is a further appeal (of right) to the Supreme Court. A collective action must be brought before the civil chamber of the district court. The ordinary rules of procedural law apply, including the ordinary rules of absolute and relative jurisdiction. In many cases, the latter means that the district court in the place where the party causing the damage is domiciled has jurisdiction. 2. How common are class actions in your

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to class actions in South Korea published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (Law stated at: 15 September 2022). Authors: Hannuri Law Firm—Joo-young Kim; Hyun-ju Ku 1. Outline the organisation of your court system as it relates to collective or representative actions (class actions). In which courts may class actions be brought? Korea's court system is based on a three-tier judicial system composed of district courts, high courts and the Supreme Court. The 18 district courts have original jurisdiction over most civil and criminal cases, with some exceptions, and the six high courts have appellate jurisdiction over cases decided by a trial panel of three judges in a district court. Ultimately, the Supreme Court functions as the highest court for most legal issues, including class action cases. While there are other special courts, such as a patent court and a family court, there is no specific court exercising jurisdiction over collective or class actions. Class actions are, therefore, brought