CZECH REPUBLIC Trends and Developments Contributed by: Robert Němec, Michal Sylla, Viktor Glatz and Adéla Šmahelová, PRK Partners
PRK Partners Jáchymova 26/2 110 00 Prague 1 Czech Republic Tel: +420 221 430 111 Email: prague@prkpartners.com Web: www.prkpartners.com
Current List of Qualified Entities The Czech regulation of collective redress – Act No 179/2024 Coll. on Collective Civil Court Proceeding (the Collective Proceedings Act), together with Act No 180/2024 Coll. on the Amendment of Certain Laws in Relation to the Adoption of the Collective Proceed- ings Act (the Ancillary Act), came into force on 1 July 2024 as a slightly delayed transposition of Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2020 on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers (the Representative Actions Directive). In order to bring a representative action, claimants must be registered in a list of qualified entities. The list can either be maintained by the European Commis- sion for the purpose of bringing cross-border repre- sentative actions or by the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade. As of now, only two entities are registered on both the Czech and the European list, which is slightly below the EU average (three entities per coun- try). An “old list” of qualified entities already existed before the new legislation came into effect and was based on Directive 98/27/EC of the European Parlia- ment and of the Council of 19 May 1998 on injunctions for the protection of consumers’ interests. This list contains seven entities. After the new legislation came into effect, two meth- ods were available in order to become a qualified enti- ty. It was expected that entities already registered on the “old list” would meet the conditions to be on the “new list”. Therefore, these entities had 30 days from the entry into effect of the new legislation to apply to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which would automatically include them on the new list. However,
only one entity used this opportunity. The second method, still remaining available, involves submit- ting a new application, which will be assessed by the Ministry based on compliance with the mandatory requirements following from the new legislation, cor- responding to those set out in Article 4 (3) of the Rep- resentative Actions Directive. So far, only one entity has successfully applied and no application currently remains pending. First Collective Action for Redress Measures under the Collective Proceedings Act As previously mentioned, with only a little over one year having passed since the Collective Proceedings Act entered into force, only one collective action seek- ing redress measures has been filed to date (October 2025). The action was brought by a group of 56 con- sumers pursuing claims based on unjust enrichment against a relatively small business manufacturing and selling custom furniture and accessories for children. The unjust enrichment claimed corresponded to the purchase price, as the defendant failed either to deliv- er the ordered goods or to refund the deposits after the consumers withdrew from the contracts. The defendant remained entirely passive during the certification phase and submitted a statement only in proceedings on the merits, arguing that it either lacked passive standing (as the contracts were concluded with someone other than the defendant) or that the consumers did not have the right to withdraw from the contracts. A decision on the merits was reached surprisingly quickly; the first instance court declared the action admissible two months after filing and, following
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