Global Developments in Class Action Litigation
April 23, 2026
A newly revamped French website aims to report on global developments in judicial mechanisms for collective redress. As it turns out, class actions and related collective actions are becoming increasingly common in many European countries, but they are also the subject of significant debate, as highlighted by the “News” page on the site, which also describes upcoming conferences and other events.
In addition to providing news, the website and broader project – entitled Observatory of Class Actions and Other Forms of Collective Redress: A Comparative and Multidisciplinary Perspective – identify experts in various countries (including the United States) and provide other information. The site describes its mission as follows:
The Observatory of Class Actions and other forms of Collective Redress is a Network of Experts, created in 2017 by Maria José Azar-Baud, in order to allow researchers and specialists from all over the world to share information on the different forms of collective action, namely class actions, group actions, popular, representative, and participate in international and interdisciplinary projects.
It is also an Information Portal that aims at making the law of collective actions accessible to any interested individual, such as consumers and victims in general, as well as companies, for whom collective actions represent a legal risk that they must now manage.
Finally, the Observatory is a Registry of actions initiated, concluded or settled, which we have information about thanks to the follow-up and the contributions of its members and to the work of the students following Maria José Azar-Baud’s courses in French and in European Union Consumer Law, as well as in Consumer Dispute Resolution and Mass Litigation at the Universities of Paris-Saclay, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Panthéon-Assas.
In 2026, the Observatory’s website is revamped to reflect new European and International trends. The News section will be updated more frequently and structured around four topics. You will find information on the transposition of the Directive on Representative Actions in the protection of consumers’ collective interests, Caselaw regarding Collective Actions on Collective Disputes, and on Events and Publications.