UK: Government Implementation of Jackson Reforms on the Costs and Funding of Litigation

Dear Colleague,

Following the LJ Jackson Report on the costs and funding of litigation in England and Wales, the UK government made a series of announcements on 30 March 2011 about major reforms of funding and reform of the civil justice system.

Please find attached a document summarising these reforms and providing further information.

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,
EJF Secretariat

UK: Government Implementation of Jackson Reforms on the Costs and Funding of Litigation. Introduction of Contingency Fees and increased Mediation

EJF Response to the Ministry of Justice’s Consultation Paper CP 13/10 on Proposals for the Reform of Civil Litigation Funding and Costs in England and Wales

Hungarian changes to private antitrust enforcement

On 1 June 2009 the amended Competition Act came into force in Hungary. Among the changes, those concerning private enforcement of competition law are most interesting. In the spirit of facilitating private enforcement, while at the same time not jeopardising the aims of competition law and its public enforcement, the Competition Act deals with a number of issues in a rather ambitious manner.

First of all, ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGES: it is clear that quantification of damages may be a challenge to claimants in private enforcement actions involving competition law - thus Article 88/C of the Competition Act offers a rebuttable presumption that the cartel's effect on the market was to increase the prices by 10%.

Second, in order to ensure the EFFECT OF LENIENCY ARRANGEMENTS, the Act (Article 88/D) offers the following solution: 1. actions against those cartel members who apply for leniency are to be stayed until the decision of the Competition Authority is final, and 2. those in receipt of leniency immunity may refuse to pay damages (in such cases they will only be forced to pay damages if these cannot be recovered from other cartel members).

(Source: M. Thill-Tayara, E. van den Broucke, M. Giner: "Private Enforcement: Hungary's Amended Competition Act Offers Some Innovative Options", 2 June 2009, www.mondaq.com).

See this link for more information about Antitrust Enforcement.

Societe Moteurs - ECJ decides on scope of Product Liability Directive

In a judgement in Case 485/08, Société Moteurs Leroy Somer v. Société Dalkia France, the European Court of Justice was asked by the French Cour de Cassation whether the Product Liability Directive precluded application of national law, or settled case law, which introduced strict liability for damage caused by a defective product to property intended and used for professional purposes. The question arose in a case between Societe Moteurs and Societe Dalkia. The answer was somewhat surprising, especially in the light of the overall ECJ approach to the Directive and its 'maximum harmonisation' nature. The ECJ held that Member States were allowed to maintain strict liability rules for recovery of compensation of damage caused to professional property! Look here for more details about this judgement in our ResourceCentre.

UK - Consumer White Paper

The UK Government adopted the Consumer White Paper "A Better Deal for Consumers. Delivering Real Help Now and Change for the Future". See more details in our glossary about EU Consumer Law.

European Commission adopts the 'Consumer Enforcement Package'

On 2 July 2009 the European Commission adopted the 'Consumer Enforcement Package', which emphasises the importance of effective, coherent and consistent enforcement of EU Consumer Law. The Package includes two key documents:

The Communication on the Enforcement of the Consumer Acquis, and

The Report on the Application of the Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation.

See our ResourceCentre for further information about these two documents, and about the EU Consumer Law in general.