Mr. Philip Andrews:

The 2020 Kelly report refers at some length to a 2001 Supreme Court of Canada authority, in which the Supreme Court effectively introduced a nationwide class action procedure without requiring the legislature to act.

The scope of the general scheme is relatively wide but we note that it does not include competition or antitrust law, an area in which there is a growing body of class actions in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.

The final point is around the relatively strict criteria that are applied in respect of what can be a qualified entity for the purpose of bringing domestic action.

The directive does not require such restrictive actions. It simply states that in respect of domestic representation actions only, the requirement is that they should be consistent with the objectives of this directive to make the functioning of such representation actions effective and efficient.