France may join the growing number of jurisdictions for class action style private antitrust damage claims in the EU.
A judge from the French Cour de cassation, the highest civil jurisdiction, speaking at a conference yesterday, stated that class action style "assigned damages claims" under French law could be accepted by French courts without a change in legislation. Under this model, a company may buy damage claims from cartel victims and bring them as a bundled claim to court.
This is the same mechanism that has recently been used in German courts by CDC. Should this position materialise in French jurisprudence, it would mean that class action style damage claims could prosper in France.
