The French legal system seems to be looking increasingly to the US for concepts to borrow when it comes to justice, a trend demonstrated late last year by the incorporation of plea bargaining into French criminal law. Then, on 4 January this year, President Jacques Chirac announced proposals for the introduction of class action lawsuits to France.
The recent move toward class action suits in France seems to have been made in an effort to promote the rights of consumers who have suffered from a wrongful practice. President Chirac told his Government: “Today, they [consumers] are deprived because, taken separately, none of the damages of which they are victims is sufficiently significant to cover the costs of a legal action. This is why I am asking the Government to propose a modification to the legislation to allow consumer groups and their associations to bring class actions against wrongful practices observed on certain markets.”
