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European Class Actions

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CMS' leading class action team and unparalleled European structure develops and implements cohesive defence strategies for cross border cases.

Class actions are on the rise in Europe, and corporates are increasingly facing class actions filed in multiple European jurisdictions simultaneously. With the largest European coverage of any major law firm, CMS is uniquely placed to defend these matters robustly, whilst handling reputational and any regulatory issues. 

Class action risk is driven by local procedural law, and the diversity of rules within Europe means that corporates can face a patchwork of opt-in and opt-out claims. This requires a holistic defence strategy to address their specific threats. We identify fault lines and dispositive strategies. Opt-in claims bring particular logistical and practical challenges and our technology-driven practices deliver results whilst maximising efficiences. Opt-out claims are a new phenomenon in Europe, and require different strategies.

Most of all, we recognise that class actions can be board-level events. We support clients throughout the process and pride ourselves on the results we achieve.

Acting as a strategic advisor for a leading German car-manufacturer against a large number of diesel-related customer claims before German courts and in several other European jurisdictions.

CMS

Defending banks and financial institutions in class action disputes regarding mortgage loans, financial instruments, pension funds, fraud, misleading statements, D&O liability and PI cover issues.

CMS

Acting as a strategic advisor for a leading German car-manufacturer against a large number of diesel-related customer claims before German courts and in several other European jurisdictions.

CMS

Defending banks and financial institutions in class action disputes regarding mortgage loans, financial instruments, pension funds, fraud, misleading statements, D&O liability and PI cover issues.

CMS
CMS Dis­putes Di­gest Pod­cast
Listen to our pod­casts on the key top­ics of our re­cent In­ter­na­tion­al Dis­putes...
CMS Ex­pert Guide to European class ac­tions
This Ex­pert Guide out­lines the key pro­ced­ur­al para­met­ers of col­lect­ive...

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22/07/2021
CMS In­ter­na­tion­al Dis­putes Di­gest - 2021 Sum­mer Edi­tion
Wel­come to the 2021 sum­mer edi­tion of our In­ter­na­tion­al Dis­putes Di­gest, a bi-an­nu­al pub­lic­a­tion fea­tur­ing ana­lys­is and com­ment­ary on the key trends cur­rently shap­ing the glob­al dis­pute res­ol­u­tion mar­ket.As...
Publication
28/07/2021
Class ac­tion risk for the in­sur­ance in­dustry
The num­ber of class ac­tions be­ing filed in Europe is show­ing a re­lent­less up­ward trend with a 120% growth between 2018 and 2020. Drivers be­hind this growth in­clude new pro­ced­ur­al devices, in­creas­ingly...
Event Webinar
06/07/2021
Class ac­tions risk in the con­sumer products sec­tor
The num­ber of class ac­tions be­ing filed in Europe is show­ing a re­lent­less up­ward trend with a 120% growth between 2018 and 2020. Drivers be­hind this growth in­clude new pro­ced­ur­al devices, in­creas­ingly...
Event Webinar
16/06/2021
CMS European Class Ac­tions Re­port 2021
First re­port on the true pic­ture of European class ac­tion risk, a key con­cern for ma­jor cor­por­ates 
Publication
03/02/2021
CMS Ex­pert Guide to European class ac­tions
Class ac­tions have been on the rise in Europe for a num­ber of years, but the rate is ac­cel­er­at­ing. New pro­ced­ur­al devices in­ten­ded to bet­ter fa­cil­it­ate col­lect­ive re­dress con­tin­ue to be in­tro­duced. Of­ten...
Expert Guide Dispute Resolution
Comparable
17/11/2020
CMS Dis­putes Talk
In these un­cer­tain times, glob­al busi­nesses in al­most every sec­tor are fa­cing chal­lenges brought about by an un­pre­ced­en­ted op­er­a­tion­al cli­mate. Ac­tions and de­cisions taken dur­ing and im­me­di­ately after...
Publication
02/07/2020
EU agrees new class ac­tion re­gime for con­sumer dis­putes
After a long gest­a­tion, on 30 June 2020 the Coun­cil of the EU pub­lished the text for the col­lect­ive re­dress dir­ect­ive (the “CR Dir­ect­ive”) (text avail­able here). This le­gis­la­tion is in­ten­ded to bet­ter...
Law-Now European Class Actions
23/06/2020
In­ter­na­tion­al Dis­putes Di­gest - Sum­mer Edi­tion 2020
Back to main page Wel­come to the sum­mer edi­tion of our In­ter­na­tion­al Dis­putes Di­gest, a bi-an­nu­al pub­lic­a­tion fea­tur­ing ana­lys­is and com­ment­ary on the key trends cur­rently shap­ing the glob­al dis­pute res­ol­u­tion...
Publication
10/06/2020
Scot­tish class ac­tion pro­ced­ure to come in­to force on 31 Ju­ly 2020
A new mech­an­ism for bring­ing group pro­ceed­ings (class ac­tions) in Scot­land will come in­to force on 31 Ju­ly 2020. Class ac­tions rep­res­ent a sig­ni­fic­ant risk for cor­por­ate and pub­lic sec­tor de­fend­ants alike...
Law-Now European Class Actions
29/04/2020
UK com­pet­i­tion class ac­tions: The up­com­ing Su­preme Court hear­ing in Mer­ricks...
On 12 and 13 May 2020, the UK’s Su­preme Court will hear Mas­ter­card’s ap­peal in the class ac­tion brought by Wal­ter Hugh Mer­ricks CBE. The ap­peal con­cerns “cer­ti­fic­a­tion hear­ings” un­der the UK’s...
Law-Now European Class Actions