Originally from Collective Litigation in Europe: Law and Practice – Preview Page

1. NATIONAL LEGISLATION

The Dutch legal system has multiple mechanisms for collective litigation, which all have a basis in the Civil Code (the DCC) and the Code of Civil Procedure (the DCCP).  
Article 3:305a DCC provides the possibility for a claimant entity to file a claim to protect the similar interests of other persons against a defendant (collective action). Legislation on collective actions was amended on 1 January 2020, leading to substantive changes (see section 3).1 In line with transitional provisions, the new collective action regime applies to claims started after 1 January 2020 and which are based on events that occurred on or after 15 November 2016.2 As a result, even many of the collective actions that have been initiated since 1 January 2020 remain to be governed by the previous regime.3 In this chapter, we discuss both the old and the new regime (generally referred to as the WAMCA regime), where relevant. 
Dutch procedural law also allows for more traditional mechanisms for collective litigation, such as assignment of claims (cessie), joinder of parties (subjectieve cumulatie) and consolidation of cases (voeging), allowing claimants with often similar interests to bundle multiple claims.