Bringing a case on an individual’s behalf is usually costly and time consuming. Especially if hundreds, thousands or even millions of users suffered from a violation, the company can make enormous profits, even if each violation may be too small for users to claim their rights. The EU has recognized this structural imbalance and passed the directive on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers (“collective redress directive”). The directive will allow organisations like noyb to file class actions for data protection violations on behalf of thousands of affected people.
To prepare for the implementation of this directive, noyb
- conducts research on the possible collective actions open to organizations like noyb in the EU,
- builds cases and workflows (collecting evidence, doing legal research, launching a campaign) that could lead to a class action,
- develop digital platforms to allow users to join collective actions and to manage large numbers of concerned users (“legal tech”) and
- ensure that a qualified entity to bring such cases.