The Next Wave of Global Litigation

"14 France has introduced a class action regime for specific types of claims, including competition, health, discrimination, environment, privacy and data protection law.15 Under France's system, "[c]laims can only be brought by licensed consumer associations on behalf of consumers who opt-in to the claim" and the claims must also be able to "rely on a previous regulatory finding of infringement. "23 The statute also provides for hefty civil penalties of $7,500 for each intentional violation of the CCPA, which a consumer (on an individual or classwide basis) may prosecute if the California Attorney General declines to do so.24 The CCPA bears a notable resemblance to the data-privacy protection laws of Europe.25 "For instance, under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an entity is only able to collect personal information about a 'data subject' if it has a legal basis to do so, for example by obtaining the data subject's consent. The Federal Government enacted the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act to govern how private companies can collect, use, and disclose personal information.29 Personal information about an identifiable individual, other than an employee's name, title, business address and telephone number, is not to be disclosed.30 Provinces also have data protection legislation, such as Quebec's An Act Respecting the production of Personal Information in the Private Sector and British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act. In Flores v. LivWell, the plaintiffs brought an action in a Colorado state court, asserting that a dispensary had used myclobutanil32 in the cultivation of its marijuana, which allegedly tainted the resulting product.33 Before the case got to the class action certification stage, however, the court dismissed the case on standing grounds, concluding that the complaint had not alleged any compensable injury, such as personal injury, from the purchase and use of the product.34 In Kirk v. Nutritional Elements, Inc., and Gaia's Garden, the plaintiffs brought a wrongful death action against a medical marijuana bakery in a Colorado state court, alleging that the bakery had sold edibles to their father without adequately labeling the product or warning about its potential effects.35 Plaintiffs further alleged that their father shot