The Position of Consumers in Representative Action for Injunctive Measures – an Assessment of the Current State of Affairs and Considerations de lege ferenda

Keywords: collective proceedings, representative action, injunctive measure, consumer protection

Abstract: The article at hand deals with the current legal regulation of the representative actions for injunctive relief, which is now contained in Section 25 of the Czech Consumer Protection Act. The primary focus of the article is the issue of the position of consumers in representative proceedings. In the article, the author assesses the current legal regulation and addresses the question of possible future developments in this area. The author first summarises the developments in the field of EU law. The Consumer Protection Act transposes the EU Directive on Injunction in Consumer Law from 2009. However, this directive has been recently replaced by the Directive on Representative Actions for the Protection of Collective Interests of Consumers with effect from 25th June 2023. The article analyses this new directive and asks what changes will need to be reflected at the national level. In relation to the position of consumers, the author identifies four aspects that need to be examined - the necessity of the consumer's consent when initiating proceedings, the questions of lis pendens and res iudicata, and finally, the rights of consumers during proceedings as such. The author elaborates on the possibilities determined by the directive, from where she further argues what the optimal setting is. By doing so, she especially takes into account the right of access to justice of the consumers concerned on the one hand, and the efficiency of the process and the equality of arms on the other.

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