NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Eva Schothorst-Gransier, Claims Made Advocatuur
2.4 Jurisdictional Requirements for Product Liability Claims European Legislation For product liability, international jurisdiction is, in principle, governed by European Council Reg - ulation EU No 1215/2012, commonly referred to as the Brussels I Recast. One can be sued in court in another member state if the place where a harmful event occurred or could occur falls within the competence of that court. The place where the product in question was manufac - tured and the place where the initial damage occurred are referred to as Handlungsort and the Erfolgsort, respectively. Depending on the specifics of the case, there could be some spe - cial jurisdiction rules (eg, for liability insurers). Lugano Convention 88/592/EEC governs the jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, specifically between EU member states and Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. The Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, established in The Hague in 2005 (2014/887/ EU), applies to exclusive choice of court agree - ments in commercial transactions involving par - ties from EU member states and other nations, such as the United Kingdom. DCCP Where no international treaty is applicable, the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure (DCCP) deter - mines international jurisdiction. According to Article 2 of the DCCP, the main rule is that the Dutch court has jurisdiction if the defendant is a domiciled or habitual resident in the Netherlands. The court may also have jurisdiction if jurisdic - tion has been agreed upon in a contract or if the contract that is the subject of the proceedings had to be performed in the Netherlands (Article 8 of the DCCP). However, if it is truly impossible
for the claimant to start legal proceedings out - side the Netherlands, the Dutch court may also assume jurisdiction, according to the forum of necessity doctrine (Article 9 of the DCCP). Due to the complexity of the above-mentioned legislation, careful legal analysis must be carried out to ensure that the claim is brought before the competent court. Neither the Brussels I Recast Regulation nor the DCCP provides a specific basis of jurisdic - tion or application of the (special) jurisdictional rules with regard to collective actions. In a col - lective action brought by the Diesel Emissions Justice Foundation against car manufacturers not based in the Netherlands, the central ques - tion was whether the Dutch court had jurisdic - tion. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal accepted competency regarding aggrieved persons who had bought or leased their vehicle in the Neth - erlands on the basis of Article 8 sub 1 Brussels I Recast (regarding the Italian car manufac - turer) and Article 7 sub 1 DCCP (regarding the US manufacturer). Competency of the Dutch Court was not accepted regarding aggrieved persons who had bought or leased their vehicle outside the Netherlands, somewhere in the EU ( Court of Appeal Amsterdam 13 August 2024, ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2024:2238 ). 2.5 Pre-Action Procedures and Requirements for Product Liability Claims There are no specific pre-action procedures and/ or requirements for filing a lawsuit for product lia - bility claims in the Netherlands. The only excep - tion is for collective action (Article 3:305a of the DCC). Failure to comply with these pre-action requirements can make the claim inadmissible. For more detailed information, please see 2.16 Existence of Class Actions, Representative
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