On 18 March 2024, the Belgian government submitted a bill to Parliament to transpose the EU Collective Redress Directive into national law. This Directive was adopted on 25 November 2020 and aims to ensure that all EU Member States provide at least one effective and efficient procedural mechanism for representative actions (read more in our blog post). In essence, this creates an EU equivalent of a class action. 

Key changes

The proposal does not suggest a complete overhaul of the current Belgian regime, which already complies to a large extent with the requirements set forth in the Collective Redress Directive. Collective redress actions have been available in Belgium for consumers since 2014 and for SMEs since 2018. Likewise, actions for cease-and-desist orders are already well established and have been adapted to EU requirements in the past.

Nevertheless, the Belgian legal landscape for collective litigation will look different if this bill is adopted, with the following notable changes: 

• a broader scope of application, with collective redress actions also being made available for, among other things, breaches of prospectus legislation (including MiFID rules), the GDPR, the DMA and the DSA;
• a generalised opt-in regime (with consumers only having to choose whether to opt in after a decision on the merits is issued), but with the possibility to enter into collective settlements on an opt-out basis;
• some limited rules on litigation funding to ensure the independence of the qualified entity;
• the possibility of cross-border actions for collective redress, which will allow foreign qualified entities to bring actions for collective redress in Belgium and will allow Belgian qualified entities to bring actions for collective redress abroad; and
• a significant streamlining of the procedure for actions for collective redress with the aim of having courts deliver judgments within a shorter period of time. 

We will provide a more comprehensive overview of the envisaged changes shortly.

Outlook

Following its submission to Parliament, the bill will now have to go through parliamentary discussions, with the possibility for amendments to be made along the way. It is an important first step in bringing Belgian collective redress rules in line with EU requirements.