Belgium
Class actions do exist under Belgian procedural law and are brought before the Business Court. The aim of such claims is to provide compensaton damage suffered by a group of plaintiffs. A class action can be brought on a large variety of topics, however a few requirements need to be met:
- The invoked cause constitutes a potential breach of the defendant’s obligations under contract, European regulations or the laws mentioned in Article XVII. 37 of the Economic Law Code. Whilst this means that class actions are not available for every type of case, the list of applicable cases is fairly extensive and includes actions under competition, market practices and consumer protection laws.
- The action is initiated by a group representative. For example, an association defending consumer interests with legal personality and that sits on the Special Advisory Commission for Consumer Affairs (such as FGTB or Test-achat, an association that has received ministerial approval) or a representative entity approved by a Member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area that meets specific criteria. The litigation group itself will consist of all consumers who, individually, are harmed by the common cause.
- A class action would be a more relevant and efficient procedure compared to normal court proceedings.
If these admissibility conditions are met, the class action procedure has two possible outcomes: an amicable settlement or a judicial decision.
The keys phases in the class action procedure can be summarised as follows:
- Admissibility phase: within two months of the request being filed, the court rules on the admissibility of the collective redress action.
- Negotiation phase: during the timeframe set by the court, the group representative and the defendant negotiate an agreement on compensation for collective harm.
- Approval phase: in case of an agreement between the group representative and the company regarding consumer compensation, the court reviews and, if it is satisfied with the agreement reached, grants approval.
- Substantive decision: if no agreement is reached, the court will issue a determinative ruling. The judge can either grant the collective redress request or reject it.