SLOVENIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Bojan Brežan, Marko Frantar, Maks David Osojnik and Špela Lovšin, Schoenherr Slovenia
3.6 Case Management Powers of Courts As a rule, the court determines the procedure and the timeline of the proceedings, acting within the limits as set out by the applicable procedural laws. That said, the Collective Actions Act in some respects provides slightly broader limits and more flexibility for the court, including the discretion to decide: • between the different mechanisms of forming the class (opt-in/opt-out); • different means of informing the members of the class; • whether to order a payment of security costs to the plaintiff; • the deadline for filing the answer to the lawsuit on the merits (between 30 and 60 days); and • the system of compensation allocation and distri- bution. 3.7 Length and Timetable for Proceedings Owing to their dissimilar structure, the length of time it takes to complete both types of collective action proceedings is likely to vary. The injunctive collective proceedings are set up in a similar way to regular civil proceedings, whereas the collective compensatory action proceedings – with their three different stages in which the law envisions a separate set of hearings – will generally take longer. Within the three stages of the collective compensa- tory action proceedings, there are specific deadlines determined for different procedural actions. The maxi- mum deadline for the answer to the lawsuit on the merits is twice as long as per regular civil proceed- ings (up to 60 instead of the conventional (fixed) 30 days in regular civil proceedings). The opt-in/opt-out stage is set to last between 30 and 90 days, depend- ing on the court’s discretion. The final allocation of compensation stage also adds to the duration of the compensatory proceedings, as the law prescribes a 30-day deadline in which to compile the list of indi- viduals entitled to compensation and an additional 30 days for the parties to contend the list. As of August 2025, the current case law on collective actions in Slovenia remains scarce (with, notably, no compensatory collective action yet passing through
mechanism as part of its decision to approve a col- lective action. That said, the opt-in mechanism is mandatory in cas- es where: • at least one of the claims in the collective action relates to the payment of compensation for non- pecuniary damage; or • at least 10% of the members of the group are seeking payment in excess of EUR2,000, accord- ing to an estimate in the collective action. In any case, the opt-in mechanism applies to all per- sons without permanent residence or a registered office in Slovenia at the time of the decision to approve a collective action. When the decision on certification of a collective action is final, the court notifies the members of the class about the collective action and whether an opt- in or opt-out mechanism will apply, in addition to set- ting a deadline in which they can either opt in or opt out. After the deadline has expired, a person may only join the proceedings (opt in) or be excluded from them (opt out) with the defendant’s consent or the court’s approval – both of which should be granted after tak- ing into account reasons for the delay and whether the defendant’s position would be materially prejudiced by such joining or exclusion. There are no limits regarding the size of the group. 3.5 Joinder When several qualified entities, each representing only a portion of the injured parties or an individual sub-group, co-operate in filing a collective action or concluding a collective settlement, the condition of representativeness is assessed in respect of all such qualified persons together. That said, only one compensatory collective action can be certified per an individual mass harm event. Should different qualified entities file separate com- pensatory collective action claims in relation to the same mass harm event, the court will examine all such actions at the certification stage. Unless it dismisses all such actions, the court will only certify one action.
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