CollAct Digital Tool Helps Consumer Groups Bring Collective Claims
The Latvian Consumer Interest Protection Association has developed CollAct, a digital tool that eases the handling of large numbers of consumer applications in collective claims. It is already usable in Latvia, though it still needs improvements, and it is being adapted for Slovakia.
The Latvian Consumer Interest Protection Association (LPIAA), with support from the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), has developed a digital tool called CollAct. It is intended for consumer organisations that must gather and file collective claims in cases where unfair commercial practices have harmed hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. The source cites "Dieselgate" as an example. The material was published as a paid advertorial.
Why a digital tool is needed
Under Latvian law, a consumer organisation entitled to bring collective claims must itself collect and process each consumer's individual claim. With around 1,000 affected consumers, this means a heavy administrative burden: many phone calls, emails and meetings. With 200,000 affected consumers, the workload could become an insurmountable obstacle to filing a claim. A well-designed tool therefore saves resources and can make such claims feasible at all.
What CollAct offers
CollAct helps process large numbers of applications and reduces administrative load. It is built for an "opt-in" system, in which consumers who want to be represented in a collective claim submit an application to the organisation. Such a system operates in countries including Germany, France, Italy, Lithuania and Slovakia.
The association also points to indirect benefits. A tool like this lets non-governmental organisations take a more active role in protecting consumer rights, easing the burden on supervisory authorities. If CollAct were integrated with court IT infrastructure in future, data could be transferred automatically and in a structured way, making courts' work on collective claims easier.
Current status
The tool can already be used for the basic functions of managing collective claims, but it still needs significant improvements, which LPIAA continues to work on. With EU co-funding, the association is running the CollAct SK project, helping the Slovak consumer organisation Spoločnosť ochrany spotrebiteľov (SOS) adapt the tool to Slovak needs. More information is available at www.pateretajs.lv.
