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EJF participates in the ADR Conference at Wolfson College, University of Oxford

After 2 long years of pandemic, practitioners and academic experts resume gatherings to find solutions to issues of solving mass disputes fairly and effectively that have the potential to impact European justice. On this occasion, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) took the spotlight.

In November 2022, Dr. Herbert Woopen, Director of Legal Policy of EJF, together with Dr. Lorenz Ködderitzsch, the former long-term Chair of EJF, contributed to the Panel “Feedback and Affecting Behaviour” in the context of ADR and provided views on how to develop the ideal holistic domestic infrastructure for dispute resolution. Whether a consumer is attempting to solve a dispute in court, out of court or with the intervention of a regulator as public authority, the structure of the task to be accomplished is always the same: (i) capture disputes and details as well as potential beneficiaries; (ii) define comparable cases in view of a solution; (iii) clarify applicable rules and legal norms; and (iv) negotiate or impose a solution.

To streamline this process, appropriate IT infrastructure should be set up. Such support for resolution tools could be essentially the same for all three pathways, as a high quantity of cases require digitization. It is against this background that Dr Woopen proposes a functional IT architecture: a single central electronic register that would be fed by consumers themselves, by consumer associations, by European Consumer Centres, by the public entities created by the Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation for cross-border cases or by sectorial, other and residual ADR entities as sources.

For a deep dive into the present topic, see the full presentation here.

 

After 2 long years of pandemic, practitioners and academic experts resume gatherings to find solutions to issues of solving mass disputes fairly and effectively that have the potential to impact European justice. On this occasion, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) took the spotlight.

In November 2022, Dr. Herbert Woopen, Director of Legal Policy of EJF, together with Dr. Lorenz Ködderitzsch, the former long-term Chair of EJF, contributed to the Panel “Feedback and Affecting Behaviour” in the context of ADR and provided views on how to develop the ideal holistic domestic infrastructure for dispute resolution. Whether a consumer is attempting to solve a dispute in court, out of court or with the intervention of a regulator as public authority, the structure of the task to be accomplished is always the same: (i) capture disputes and details as well as potential beneficiaries; (ii) define comparable cases in view of a solution; (iii) clarify applicable rules and legal norms; and (iv) negotiate or impose a solution.

To streamline this process, appropriate IT infrastructure should be set up. Such support for resolution tools could be essentially the same for all three pathways, as a high quantity of cases require digitization. It is against this background that Dr Woopen proposes a functional IT architecture: a single central electronic register that would be fed by consumers themselves, by consumer associations, by European Consumer Centres, by the public entities created by the Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation for cross-border cases or by sectorial, other and residual ADR entities as sources.

For a deep dive into the present topic, see the full presentation here.

 

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Press Release: Revised Product Liability Directive risks undermining Single Market coherence, business leaders warn

Roundtable in Brussels warns diverging implementations of the revised Product Liability Directive increase litigation risk and undermine EU competitiveness.

Brussels, 02 April 2026 - Senior business leaders, legal experts and policymakers warned at a Brussels roundtable on 24 March that inconsistent implementations of the revised Product Liability Directive (PLD) will fragment the Single Market, increase litigation risk and weaken Europe’s competitiveness unless the European Commission provides early guidance.

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Third-Party Litigation Funding (TPLF) in France

Pros and Cons of the new French Decree no 2025-1191 of 10 December 2025 on the admission of associations and other bodies to conduct domestic and cross-border group actions and specifying their obligations regarding publication of their fundings.

 

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Opinion on the French Decree Implementing the 2026 Class Action Regime

In accordance with the DDADUE 5 law, France has published Decree No. 2025-1191 to create a clear legal framework for collective claims supported by third party funders. The framework includes processes for authorizing organisations to represent claimants in "actions de groupe" and the law imposes important new governance and transparency norms in the field of collective litigation in France.

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Joint Business Statements on TPLF

On 21 January 2026, a cross-sector group of business associations issued a joint statement renewing their call for proportionate, harmonised EU-level rules on professional third-party litigation funding (TPLF). The statement highlights the rapid expansion of for-profit litigation funding in Europe, which continues to operate with limited transparency and fragmented oversight, despite the presence of more than 300 funders in the EU.

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