📢 Here are 6 takeaways from the French class action reform resulting from Act no. 2025-391 of April 30, 2025, transposing Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and Council of November 25, 2020:

1️⃣ The scope of class actions includes the following options:
– In the domestic order: A class action can still be filed to matters under French law (hence, beyond the scope of transposition of the Directive) and EU law (Art. 16., I.-A.). This repeals various previous class actions (“consumers’ class action”, etc.).
– At cross-border level: A class action can now be raised under EU law matters for EU nationals by qualified entities from their own EU countries (Art. 16., I.-C.-3.).

2️⃣ Legal standing to bring a class action is granted, under an undisputed monopoly, to:
– newly “certified” (and not only “consumer”) non-profit organizations by the French state, for domestic class actions, except in the case of injunctive measures (Art. 16., I.-C.), and
– qualified entities for cross-border class actions (Art. 16., X.-A.).

3️⃣ The conditions for certification of a class action apply more easily to:
– all natural persons and now legal entities
– for all serial claims (property damage and, from now on, bodily injury)
– following all tortious and contractual liability
– still against a defendant trader (Art. 16., I.-A.) and, now, also, its insurer (Art. 16., IX.-G.).

4️⃣ The general rule remains that victims can only be compensated if they join a class action:
– on a voluntary basis (“opt-in” principle), and not by default unless waived (“opt-out” principle)
– in principle, within 2 months to 5 years of publication of the judgment declaring the class action well-founded (Art. 16.,III.-A.-1.).

5️⃣ It is possible to award:
– provisional attorneys’ fees to a non-profit organization (Art. 16.,III.-A.-2.) and
– third-party funding for a class action, provided it leads to no conflict of interest or adverse effect on the persons in the class (Art. 16., I.-D.).

6️⃣ In addition, there are civil fines / punitive damages (Art. 16., XI. codified in Civil Code, art. 1254):
– They apply when a trader deliberately misbehaves to obtain an undue profit, known as “lucrative fault”, and causes serial damage. Obviously, this relates to intentional torts which cause serial damage (without necessarily the specific intent to do so). The question arises, however, as to whether it can also amount to unintentional misconduct. Indeed, under French criminal law, when indirectly causing a fatal or non-fatal accident, an accused is supposed to deliberately misbehave to be guilty of manslaughter / criminal negligence. Hence, the similarity to wanton / willful misconduct.
– They amount, at most, to twice the profit made for individuals, and 5 times for business entities.
– The State is the beneficiary.
– This is uninsurable by law.