Collective Action, Collective Reaction: What In-House Lawyers Should Know about European Class Actions

Mary Terzino, Attorney and Consultant, US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, USA

The scorching weather of 2019’s summer has been only one of the heat waves to strike Europe. A wave of collective redress mechanisms has been putting the heat on companies, including global actors. Class action litigation devices have been, or are being, developed for different reasons, at different speeds, and in different forms not only in the EU itself, but in most Member States. The non-unified, overlapping nature of these mechanisms produces an array of mass-action options from which claimants and their lawyers may choose. It is not surprising that several countries have emerged as hot spots for collective litigation brought, in some instances, in multiple jurisdictions. Threaded throughout these trends is the enabling presence of third party litigation funding (TPLF) in collective actions. Funder involvement boosts the stakes for companies, creating an unwelcome mouth to feed in settling these cases.

Mary Terzino is a former Assistant General Counsel and Director, Corporate Legal Issues at The Dow Chemical Company, where she held various positions including head of global litigation and leader of the environmnent, health and safety legal group. Currently she advises the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) on litigation and legal policy matters, including those outside the US. In 2017 she received ILR’s Research and Policy Award for her work with the organisation.

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