Introduction In Mohr v National Hockey League, 2022 FCA 145, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) dismissed an appeal from a motion to strike a proposed class action claim. The proposed representative plaintiff alleged an anti-competitive conspiracy among professional and major junior hockey leagues. This decision is significant because the FCA confirmed that prohibitions under section 45 of the Canadian Competition Act apply to “supply side” agreements only. They do not apply to “buy…
In brief The Federal Court of Australia has awarded aggregate damages in an Australian consumer class action proceeding commenced by a private applicant. The last time an order of this kind was made was in 1998, in representative proceedings commenced by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC).[1] In Williams v Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited (Initial Trial) [2022] FCA 344 (“Williams”), a class action concerning defective diesel particulate filter systems, Justice Lee awarded damages on an…
Bucking the trend of recent certification decisions, the Competition Appeal Tribunal refused to grant an opt-out collective proceedings order in favour of either of the two competing proposed class representatives in the foreign exchange follow-on claims.[1] In a significant victory, the respondent banks succeeded in their argument that the claims brought by O’Higgins and Mr Evans should not proceed on an opt-out basis. The Tribunal has given O’Higgins and Evans three months to decide whether…
On 8 March 2022, the Competition Appeal Tribunal published its summary of the opt-out collective claim filed by Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen against Meta, in relation to alleged abuses of dominance imposed through Facebook’s terms and conditions.[1] As the 17th application for a collective proceedings order made since the class actions regime changed in 2015, it seemed an opportune time to reflect on a few trends in collective claims. More often than not, those claims…
1. Introduction Swiss civil procedural law today only provides for very limited possibilities of collective redress, which the Swiss Federal Council has recognized in a report back in 2013 as insufficient. However, the issue of how exactly collective redress shall be strengthened is highly controversial. A first proposal by the Federal Council was rejected by Parliament in 2014. Relevant amendments were also initially included in the draft of the revised Civil Procedure Code (CPC) in…
Although class action procedures were codified in Russian civil procedure legislation in October 2019, they have not been especially popular or widely used in the last two years. Just a handful of class action cases have been resolved so far. Lately, however, it seems they are becoming more common – even reaching the e-learning sector, which has expanded significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. A class action against an educational platform called GeekBrains has…
This article discusses the judgment of the Amsterdam District Court issued on 29 December 2021 that clarifies certain admissibility requirements for representatives claiming damages under the Settling of Large-scale Losses or Damage (Class Actions) Act (WAMCA). Introduction On 29 December 2020, the Amsterdam District Court handed down a judgment providing new insights on admissibility requirements for representatives claiming damages under the Settling of Large-scale Losses or Damage (Class Actions) Act (Wet Afwikkeling Massaschade in Collectieve…
Justice Belobaba recently refused to certify a class action arising from the “diesel-gate” auto emissions scandal. In 2015, regulatory authorities announced that certain manufacturers had been installing “defeat devices” in their diesel vehicles to cheat on emissions tests and violate clean air laws. Unlike other class proceedings related to the scandal, this proposed class consisted of owners and lessees of vehicles who sold or returned their vehicles before the scandal was revealed (pre-disclosure owners). At…
The expansion of opt-out class actions in the UK continues with certification of claims aimed at recovering for alleged systemic abuses of dominance across the south east and west rail networks. The judgment reinforces that certification will be viewed as only a first step in class litigation in the UK – as opposed to the immediate precursor to settlement that it can signify in the US and Canada – and reinforces the likelihood that claimant…
In a judgment handed down this week by its Grand Chamber, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) decided that, under certain circumstances, a subsidiary can be held liable for cartel activity engaged by its parent company. This judgment has potentially far-reaching consequences and may give an additional impetus to private damages litigation. Background On 24 October 2019, Sumal (an alleged victim of the Trucks cartel) brought a claim for damages in follow-on litigation in front of…