The Context: Litigation over State obligations to mitigate climate change intensifies globally, with NGOs and individuals pressuring corporations to cut emissions. The European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") issued three...more
The Situation: The UK Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") recently secured undertakings from fashion brands ASOS, Boohoo, and George at Asda to address allegedly misleading environmental claims. The CMA has also...more
5/22/2024
/ Advertising ,
Advertising Standards Authority ,
Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Environmental Claims ,
Environmental Policies ,
EU ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Green Energy ,
Greenwashing ,
Section 5 ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
Although class actions have been common in the United States for decades, they have not been as widely used in the rest of the world. The situation and risks remain in flux, however, as more countries have renewed momentum to...more
Although class actions have been common in the United States for decades, they have not been as widely used in the rest of the world. The situation and risks remain in flux, however, as more countries have renewed momentum to...more
12/22/2023
/ Article III ,
Australia ,
Class Action ,
EU ,
France ,
Germany ,
International Litigation ,
Jurisdiction ,
Settlement ,
Standing ,
UK
Although class actions have been common in the United States for decades, they have not been as widely used in the rest of the world. The situation and risks remain in flux, however, as more countries have renewed momentum to...more
In Short:
The Situation: After the nationalization of the Dutch SNS banking and insurance group, the Dutch Minister of Finance offered zero compensation to expropriated bondholders....more
10/24/2023
/ Bailout ,
Banks ,
Bondholders ,
Bonds ,
Compensation ,
Damages ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Expropriation ,
Financial Institutions ,
Loans ,
Ministry of Finance ,
Netherlands
Class actions have been a feature of the litigation landscape in the USA for decades. Claimant-friendly procedures combined with an aggressive and well-funded plaintiffs’ bar have created fertile ground for these large,...more
10/5/2023
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Data Breach ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Litigation Funding ,
Technology Sector ,
UK
For the first time consumers' "collective interests," as opposed to "subjective rights," are explicitly recognized and protected by an ad hoc tool, the Representative Action, which has made significant changes in the domestic...more
In Short -
The Situation: The European Union ("EU") has adopted a new regulation designed to tackle deforestation and forest degradation in the EU and globally by preventing European citizens from buying, using, and...more
The French National Assembly has passed a bill intended to promote the use of class actions in line with the new EU Representative Actions Directive....more
Nearly every board of a publicly traded company in the European Union, United Kingdom, or United States will have considered and, for most, reported on ESG matters. And it is not just public companies. In what has been little...more
On 15 March 2022, ClientEarth announced that it had written to Shell's board of directors informing them of its intent to bring a claim on behalf of the company for the board's failure to implement a Paris Agreement compliant...more
3/22/2022
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Derivative Suit ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Failure to Comply ,
Global Disputes ,
NGOs ,
Oil & Gas ,
Paris Agreement ,
Shareholder Demands ,
Shell Oil ,
UK Companies Acts
The delegated regulation includes a new comprehensive and unified reporting methodology to direct investments toward environmentally sustainable economic activities....more
3/1/2022
/ Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Investment ,
Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) ,
Net Zero ,
Real Estate Development ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Taxonomy
On January 13, 2022, the NGO Milieudefensie (the Dutch chapter of Friends of the Earth) announced that it had sent a letter to 29 Dutch companies and financial institutions considered by Milieudefensie to be "Netherlands'...more
The Ruling: On May 26, 2021, the Hague District Court ("Court") issued a ruling ordering Royal Dutch Shell Plc ("RDS"), the parent company of the Shell group with its registered office in the Netherlands, to ensure that the...more
In the third installment in our series of programs on the private enforcement of competition law in European jurisdictions, partner Gerjanne te Winkel and associate Sophie van de Graaff discuss developments in the...more
The Situation: Belgian class actions are currently available to consumers, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs") seeking damages from businesses for violations of a number of EU and Belgian...more
The Situation: The Netherlands has 79 bilateral investment treaties ("BITs") in place with non-EU countries. On March 22, 2019, the Dutch government published a new model BIT ("2019 Model") as a template for negotiating new...more
7/25/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Bilateral Investment Treaties ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Foreign Investment ,
ICSID ,
International Arbitration ,
Investor Protection ,
Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) ,
Investors ,
Netherlands ,
UNCITRAL
The Situation: The Netherlands has a comprehensive system for collective actions and the collective settlement of claims but currently, there is no possibility to seek monetary damages in collective actions.
The...more
Specially designed for large and complex international commercial disputes, the NCC offers effective and economical litigation options.
In December 2018, the Dutch Senate unanimously passed legislation to introduce the...more
The Situation: Currently, European law provides only for representative actions to stop or prohibit infringements of EU consumer law, but not for collective redress. As a result, significant differences exist in the...more
6/13/2018
/ Class Action ,
Collective Redress ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Cross-Border ,
Declaratory Judgments ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Member State ,
Proposed Legislation
The Situation: As agreed in the Coalition Contract of the current German government, the Federal Ministry of Justice officially presented the Act on Model Declaratory Proceedings ("Draft Act") on May 9, 2018, after protracted...more
The Situation: The recent EU Commission proposal for a tightening of consumer protection regulations envisages, in one of its pillars, to step up government enforcement of EU consumer rules, including by introducing a...more