Group litigation in Scandinavia

Public and organisation actions have existed for decades in the Labour Court and the Market Court in Sweden. The Group Proceedings Act of 2002 also made it possible to bring private group (class) actions, public actions, and organisation actions for injunctions and individual damages in all areas of civil law in which general courts are competent. Similar (but not identical) Acts were introduced in Denmark and Norway in 2008. The English rule on costs is applied. The judgment is res judicata for and against all group members who have opted in. To date, eleven private group actions and one public action (by the Consumer Ombudsman) have been brought in Sweden but no organisation action. Seven group actions have been brought in Norway and one in Denmark. The case-law illustrates several procedural functions which group actions have: provision of access to justice and compensation, behaviour modification, precedent-building and judicial law-making, judicial review, and provision of a forum for legal policy debate and for ethical/moral discourse. Introduction of the Acts met with strong resistance from business, finance, conservative politicians and some judges and lawyers. By the time of writing (December 2008), no abuse had occurred of the Swedish Act. The funding issue is crucial to the inclination to litigate.