The story of collective redress in the European Union up to the present
day may be qualified as a story of missed opportunities and small steps
forward. This is due to an overly cautious approach to the topic at the
European and national levels, a fear of American-style class actions,
and lobbying against the introduction of such mechanisms by those who
might become subject to them as defendant parties. As a result, many of
the collective redress mechanisms introduced so far in the various EU
Member States may rightly be qualified as 'squeaking mice.' This appears
not only from the contributions to the present volume, but also from the
considerable number of studies that have been published in the last few
years on collective redress mechanisms in Europe. The editors of the
present volume are hoping that the future of collective redress in
Europe will be brighter than the past. They anticipate that this book
will further the discussion on collective redress in Europe by providing
the most up-to-date information in the field, and that this will lead to
the implementation of effective collective redress mechanisms in the
various EU Member States - mechanisms that cannot be qualified as
stillborn, as is the case with many of the reforms that, until now, have
been introduced in most Member States. (Series: Ius Commune Europaeum -
Vol. 133) [Subject: European Law]