Class action law suits should soon become a recourse available to Luxembourg consumers who have been wronged by a company or business.

Draft legislation to transpose an EU directive has reached the parliamentary committee on economic affairs and consumer protection and will now be passed on for scrutiny by the council of state--the 21-seat body that is required to give its legal opinion on draft bills before they are presented to parliament for a vote.

MP Tess Burton (LSAP) has been designated as the rapporteur of the bill.

Minister for consumer protection Paulette Lenert (LSAP) confirmed that once the bill becomes law, legal action that up until now has only been possible to take as an individual can be done collectively. However, while integrating the provisions of class action lawsuit into the Luxembourg law, the bill will also provide “effective safeguards” to avoid possible abuses.

According to Lenert, the idea is to simplify access to justice for consumers and avoid a clogging up of courts. The legislation will, therefore, also permit both parties to reach an out-of-court settlement.

The minister said she had conducted several informal consultations with stakeholders to try and establish a “balanced” bill that will not only offer better protection for consumers as plaintiffs, but also provide guarantees for the defendants, particularly businesses, to prevent them from suffering possible damage to their reputation. The draft bill was mainly inspired by models in France and Belgium, Lenert said.

Class actions are not as prevelant in Europe as they are in the United States. But consumers in Germany, for example, did take class action against car maker VW over the “dieselgate” scandal--a recourse that was not possible for Luxembourg residents who had purchased one of the affected vehicles in the grand duchy.