Some years back, a few people (including me, in 2010) bucked conventional wisdom and predicted the rise of class actions in Europe. See, for example, my 2010 post at https://www.globaltort.com/2010/03/be-careful-what-you-wish-for-in-litigation-might-that-rule-apply-to-the-iqbaltwombly-pleading-standard/.
In fact, class actions continue to expand in Europe. For a timely and useful article providing news on the latest possible expansion, see “Collective re-dress: all talk and now trousers.” It’s online at Cooley.com. Among other things, the article points out the following possible expansion:
“More sectors in scope: the Committee proposes to significantly extend the scope of representative actions to include a much larger number of legislative instruments, primarily focussed on product safety. These include the General Product Safety Directive, and the regimes relating to low voltage equipment, radio equipment, machinery, PPE, chemicals, cosmetics, toys, foods, medicines and medical devices.”