Facts of the Case

Akzo was the subject of a dawn raid by the European Commission. The company informed the officials carrying out the raid that certain documents were likely to be protected by legal privilege and should not be removed (since the Commission is not permitted to review privileged documents). After much discussion, one of the EC officials briefly examined the documents, and decided that some of the documents should be put in a sealed envelope so that their status could be considered later. Copies of other documents were directly added to the Commission's file on the basis that the Commission officials did not accept that they were legally privileged.

Introduction

The UK’s Civil Justice Council’s recently-published research paper, ‘Reform of Collective Redress in England and Wales[i]’, tasks itself with finding ‘evidence of need’ in order to suggest that claimants in England and Wales do not fare as well as some of their Commonwealth and European counterparts in terms of access to collective redress mechanisms. The paper’s author, Professor Rachael Mulheron of Queen Mary University of London, states that the proposals should not merely be regarded as ‘a solution looking for a problem’.

As Europe begins to embrace the concept of class action litigation, it is worth looking across the Atlantic and asking: What can Europe learn from the U.S. class action experience?

Facts of the Case

Akzo was the subject of a dawn raid by the European Commission. The company informed the officials carrying out the raid that certain documents were likely to be protected by legal privilege and should not be removed (since the Commission is not permitted to review privileged documents). After much discussion, one of the EC officials briefly examined the documents, and decided that some of the documents should be put in a sealed envelope so that their status could be considered later. Copies of other documents were directly added to the Commission's file on the basis that the Commission officials did not accept that they were legally privileged.

Introduction

The UK’s Civil Justice Council’s recently-published research paper, ‘Reform of Collective Redress in England and Wales[i]’, tasks itself with finding ‘evidence of need’ in order to suggest that claimants in England and Wales do not fare as well as some of their Commonwealth and European counterparts in terms of access to collective redress mechanisms. The paper’s author, Professor Rachael Mulheron of Queen Mary University of London, states that the proposals should not merely be regarded as ‘a solution looking for a problem’.

Dieter Hofmann is a partner in the Litigation & Arbitration team of Walder Wyss & Partners, (ww&p), a leading law firm based in Zurich, Switzerland.

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