CZECH REPUBLIC Law and Practice Contributed by: Robert Němec, Michal Sylla, Viktor Glatz and Adéla Šmahelová, PRK Partners
Claimants filing collective actions under the Collective Proceedings Act may also seek provisional injunctive measures both before and after the action has been filed. Preliminary injunctions may be sought by the claimant, for example, in order to prevent further dam- age being caused by the defendant (eg, by ordering the defendant to cease a practice until the final judg- ment) or in order to secure enforceability of the final judgment (eg, by prohibiting the defendant from dis- posing of its assets). Actions under the Code of Civil Procedure An action for the protection of collective interests of consumers may also be filed only by a qualified entity fulfilling the same requirements as claimants in col- lective proceedings. However, as opposed to collective proceedings, the qualified entity acts on behalf of an indefinite group of consumers, who are not parties to the proceedings and do not have any procedural rights. The Code of Civil Procedure does not require the claimants to be legally represented. Redress measures are not available in the proceed- ings on claims for the protection of collective interests of consumers. The claimant may only seek provisional or definitive injunctive measures to cease a practice or measures establishing that the practice constitutes an infringement of a legal obligation. 3.2 Overview of Procedure Actions under the Collective Proceedings Act The Collective Proceedings Act establishes exclusive jurisdiction of the Municipal Court in Prague, which resolves all collective actions. The collective proceed- In the first stage of the proceedings, the court shall assess the admissibility of the collective action (quali- fication of the claimant, size of the group, similar basis of the claims, acting in the interests of the group, absence of conflict of interest and abusive intentions, appropriate sources of funding). ings consist of two phases. Certification proceedings
A decision in the certification phase shall be issued as soon as possible and the proceedings shall be pri- oritised by the court. If the collective action meets the required conditions, the court shall declare its admissibility. If the court finds that any admissibility requirement is not satisfied, it shall, if possible, allow the claim- ant to remedy any shortcoming in order to meet the requirements within a reasonable period. If that is not possible or if the claimant fails to meet the admissibil- ity requirements even in an additional period granted by the court, the court will terminate the proceedings. The defendant is entitled to file a statement concern- ing admissibility before a decision is issued and the court may even order a hearing to assess admissibility of a collective action. The Collective Proceedings Act also makes it possible for the claimant to contest the fulfilment of admissibility requirements at any point during the proceedings. The proceedings may there- fore be terminated for the claimant’s failure to meet the admissibility requirements even after the action has been declared admissible. Parties may file an appeal against the decision regard- ing admissibility of a collective action. Extraordinary appeals to the Supreme Court are inadmissible against decisions of the court of appeal whereby admissibility of a collective action is granted. In the decision on admissibility, the Collective Pro- ceedings Act requires the court to specify the subject matter of the proceedings, the factual basis of the collective action, the amount of the claimant’s remu- neration (if any) and method of publishing informa- tion, to define the group and membership criteria, and set a deadline in which group members may opt in (between two and four months). Proceedings on the merits After the collective action is declared admissible, the claimant will be obliged to publish a notice without undue delay. In the notice, group members shall be informed about the pending collective action proceed- ings and their procedural rights, including a deadline in which they shall register their claims. The claimant
93
CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook