Al Jennings: The Image of an Outlaw

Aligning the Brussels Regime With the Representative Actions Directive

“…56 First, it must be recalled that the ECJ, building on its previous case law, 64 finally clarified in Schrems that no one other than the consumer who was a party to the contract to which the claim in question relates can avail themselves of the special fora of Article 18(1) Brussels Ia. 65 Since the jurisdiction of the consumer forum is thus necessarily limited to determining the consumer's own rights arising from the contract concluded between the consumer and the trader, it is impossible for a consumer-assignee to assert claims assigned by other consumers against the same trader in either the consumer-assignee's court or in the consumer-assignor's court. 66 While several scholars have argued for a more expansive interpretation of Articles 17-19 Brussels Ia according to which a representative consumer claimant should be entitled to bring proceedings against a trader with respect to claims arising from a multitude of consumer contracts in the courts of the place where any one of the consumers concerned is domiciled, 67 it is by now widely accepted that the special protective jurisdiction granted to consumers in Title II, Section 4, Brussels Ia, is generally inapplicable to legal persons, be they consumer associations or private companies.…”