NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Eva Schothorst-Gransier, Claims Made Advocatuur
Legal Aid Individuals with insufficient financial means to secure legal representation might be eligible for legal aid under the conditions outlined in the Legal Aid Act. 2.16 Existence of Class Actions, Representative Proceedings or Co-Ordinated Proceedings in Product Liability Claims Two causes of collective action are available under Dutch law, as follows. WCAM Procedure The Dutch Act on the Collective Settlement of Mass Damage (WCAM), as laid down in Article 7:907 of the DCC, provides that a collective settlement must be approved as binding by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal before it can be enforced. WAMCA On 1 January 2020, the Dutch Collective Redress Act (WAMCA) came into force. A claim vehicle can initiate a collective damages action on an opt-out basis. The WAMCA is characterised by the following: • it only applies to actions that relate to events that occurred on or after 15 November 2016; • strict admissibility requirements apply for the claim vehicle; • the so-called “scope rule” requires a claim to have a sufficiently close connection to the Dutch juris - diction before it can be brought under the WAMCA; • collective claims must be registered in the Central Register, which is publicly accessible; • if there are several claim vehicles for the same event, the Court will appoint an Exclusive Repre - sentative from among the claimants who shall act for the interests of all parties in the litigation; • the court classifies the individual claimants into groups for the purpose of damage awards, which is known as damage scheduling; and • a final judgment on a collective action binds all people residing in the Netherlands who have not opted out and all non-Dutch residents who opted in. Product liability Currently, there are two WAMCA product liability class actions pending in the Netherlands.
Previously, the so-called Claim Code 2019 served as a code of conduct for claim vehicles with principles governing the relationship between a claim vehicle and a third-party funder. On 13 September 2022, the European Parliament adopted a resolution (2020/2130 (INL)), including a proposal for a new directive on the regulation of third- party litigation funding (2023/C 125/01). This proposal is still under consideration. Meanwhile, a study on Mapping Third Party Litigation Funding in the EU was carried out. Reference is made to the Final report EC Mapping TPLF in the EU dated 21 March 2025. The study aimed to collect and analyse information on legal frameworks and practices of third-party litiga - tion funding in the EU Member States and selected third countries (CA, CH, UK, US). The Commission’s services will use the study’s results to prepare future policy decisions concerning third-party litigation fund - ing, particularly in the follow-up to the Resolution of the European Parliament of 13 September 2022 on responsible funding of litigation. In Dutch case law, a range of 10% to 25% has been identified as the maximum remuneration allowed for litigation funders. A funding agreement that grants a funder a success fee of up to 25% of the dam - ages awarded can potentially be excessive (Dis - trict Court of Amsterdam 25 September 2024, ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2024:5972; Google). A heightened duty to substantiate applies in the case of remunera - tion exceeding 25% (District Court of Midden-Ned - erland 8 January 2025, ECLI:NL:RBMNE:2025:10; Essure). However, the reasonableness of the remuneration of the litigation funder can ultimately only be assessed once the outcome of the proceedings and the actual amount of that remuneration are known. Given the wide variety of collective claims, the varying duration of WAMCA proceedings, the differing levels of invest - ment by litigation funders in collective actions, and the amounts of collective damages awarded or agreed, this cannot be determined in advance in a general sense for all types of collective settlements and/or collective damages assessments (Court of Appeal of Amster - dam 7 October 2025, ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2025:2666; TikTok).
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