The Law Commission of England and Wales has announced a project, sponsored by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), to consider the “potential introduction of a consumer class actions regime”.
The move could see the expansion of class actions beyond cases before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, under the regime established by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The commission said the project will assess the benefits and risks of such a move, alongside other mechanisms such as public enforcement actions and alternative dispute resolution.
The project comes as the DBT continues its review of competition law class actions, which it launched in August 2025 through a call for evidence, with findings expected later this year.
Professor Solène Rowan, Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law, said: “The Law Commission welcomes the opportunity to bring its expertise in evidence-based law reform to consumer class actions. The project will examine the benefits and risks of introducing a consumer class actions regime and make recommendations as to how such a regime might operate.”
Matthew Felwick, a partner at Hogan Lovells, said that over recent decades, successive governments have resisted introducing a widely applicable ‘true’ class action regime, including as recently as 2022, largely due to concerns about excessive litigation, seen as a key flaw of the US system and a preference for opt-in group actions.
However, he noted that, in light of reforms in other jurisdictions, including Scotland and the EU, and the CAT’s increasingly heavy workload, much of it involving underlying consumer law allegations: “It’s not surprising the government has asked the Law Commission to look at this again.”
Anna Morfey, a partner at Ashurst, described the project as “a significant development for businesses dealing with consumers and consumer products in the UK, particularly given the numerous existing legislative, enforcement and litigation practices in the UK which arguably have already targeted consumer class action risk in recent years”.
Neil Purslow, chairman of the executive committee of the International Legal Finance Association, said: “It is encouraging to see the government tasking the Law Commission to examine ways of expanding consumer redress. Consumers and small businesses too often lack a realistic route to hold corporate wrongdoers accountable.”
He added: “The opt-out collective actions regime, backed by litigation funding, is already beginning to demonstrate its value in the competition space through the Competition Appeal Tribunal,” a point strongly disputed by defendant lawyers and their clients, although others cite evidence that such claims benefit the UK economy.
Martyn Day, co-president of the Collective Redress Lawyers Association (CORLA), described the project as “a timely and important step towards closing the UK’s justice gap”.
He added: “At present, the avenues open for large groups of individuals with the same claim to take legal action against companies are limited, so a mechanism that makes it much easier for those groups of individuals to club together makes great sense.”
Day noted that the move would keep the UK in step with EU member states that were “implementing the EU Representative actions directive that allows opt-out cases to be brought on behalf of consumers”.
However, Seema Kennedy, executive director of Fair Civil Justice, which opposes class actions, said: “The evidence both internationally and within the UK’s current class action framework demonstrates that litigation-driven solutions – especially opt-out claims – rarely result in meaningful compensation for consumers at scale.”
She said she hoped the commission would consider non-litigious solutions.
The Law Commission has invited responses to an initial scoping questionnaire from interested parties.
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