The European Commission has relaunched its bid to introduce a coherent system for collective redress in Europe.

Publishing a consultation on 4 February, the EC said it wanted to identify common legal principles on collective actions among European states. However, it ‘firmly opposes’ introducing US-style class actions, or creating incentives for abusive litigation.

The commission failed to push through a directive on collective actions at the end of 2009, after the European parliament claimed businesses would be exposed to abusive litigation.

John Meltzer, international head of product liability at City firm Hogan Lovells, said: ‘There is no doubt that the commission is intent on introducing an EU-wide collective redress procedure. The only question is what form it will take.’

Meltzer said that, in failing to propose a specific collective redress system and instead posing 34 open-ended questions, the commission’s ‘back to square one’ approach could be ‘frustrating’ for some. He added that this reflected the difficulty of resolving competing concerns between EU institutions about collective redress, following four years of consideration.