CMS European Class Actions Report 2022

Welcome to the 2022 CMS European Class Action Report. Class action risk in Europe continues to develop. A total of 110 class actions seeking damages were filed in 2021. This is slightly higher than the figure for 2020, which was itself a record high. Class actions remain a board level concern. With an increasing number of claimant law firms focusing on these claims, supported by increased capital available from litigation funders, we expect that the risk will continue increasing.

The key findings of the 2022 Report are:

• The number of class actions filed in 2021 exceeds 2020, at 110 claims. This equates to growth of over 120% between 2018 and 2021.
• There was significant growth in product liability / consumer law / personal injury claims, with triple the number of consumer claims being filed in 2021 as in 2020.
• The number of competition and data protection claims is increasing.
• In 2021, competition claims accounted for 40% of new claims against defendants in the tech sector.

New features of the 2022 Report:

• Heatmap: Class action risk in Europe is unevenly distributed between jurisdictions. Our heatmap gives an ‘at a glance’ picture of the class action risk across the continent.
• In focus: Tech Sector and Financial Products / Professional Services
• Country spotlights: Beside the regular UK, Germany and Netherlands country spotlight, now you can read about developments of individual EU countries regarding their class action procedures at different rates.
• Hot topics featured:
  • Litigation funding
  • Class action risk in the Pharma and MedTech industries 
  • The role of legal tech in facilitating class actions

CMS has the most extensive European footprint of any law firm in the world, which makes us ideally placed to seamlessly support clients facing cross-border European class actions. Contact any member of our expert team in your jurisdiction for further information and support.