Loading More Content
Class actions are permitted in England and Wales by Part 19 of The Civil Procedure Rules 1998; additional claimants or defendants may be added as a party to a claim.
Class actions benefit the court as they streamline claims that include multiple claimants or defendants. The court can utilise this power by making a Group Litigation Order (GLO). This only applicable where there is, or there is likely to be, a number of overlapping claims between the individual parties.
Overlapping claims means the class members should have the same interest. In Lloyd v Google (2021), the claim alleged that the defendant had breached the Data Protection Act 1998 by collecting and using the browser information over 4 million Apple iPhone users. The Supreme Court held that the ‘same interest’ test requires the interest to regard common issue(s), however noting that some issues may divulge.
In the Post Office Group Litigation Order (2019), the same interest test was fulfilled as the claimants had suffered similar losses as a result of the Post Office failing to investigate their Horizon IT technology and instead blaming shortfalls in branch accounts on the postmasters.
Usually claims are struck out for not fulfilling the ‘same interest’ test. Examples include Smyth v British Airways plc & ors (2024) and Prismall v Google (2024).
GLOs only apply to Opt-out claims. This is where a claim is brought by a representative automatically on behalf of all individuals of an affected class unless an individual party choses to opt-out of the GLO.
Opt-in claims is where each party has to actively affirm that they wish to be a party to the claim.
Class actions have been a fundamental part of US litigation since the 1966 amendment to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In 2024, around 5.5% of all new cases filed in the US federal court were class actions (approximately 200,000). In England and Wales, approximately 33 class actions were filed in 2024, therefore making up only a fraction of all new claims.
Although the number of class actions is relatively low, at the end of 2024 there were more than 655 million class action members, equating to approximately 10.4 class actions for every person in the UK.
The rise in class actions in the England and Wales has been attributed to the creation of the opt-out class actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, however, these claims are limited to breaches of competition law.
Nevertheless, public awareness of the availability of class actions has increased, meaning more claimants are excising their consumer rights via class actions and ultimately challenging the power that corporates hold, specifically within litigation due to their financial resources and access to legal representation.
Firstly, as class actions is an emerging division within litigation, now is a good opportunity for law firms to focus on class actions, leading them to become specialists. Law firms like to build areas of expertise that they can offer to existing clients and use to leverage new clients.
Secondly, class actions are very profitable for law firms. The total cumulative value of class actions across the UK reached £135 billion in 2024. Therefore class actions are a big threat to corporate entities meaning corporate clients will invest into their defence, creating the opportunity for Magic Circle and corporate law firms to develop a lucrative expertise in class action defence.
Mastercard was in an eight year legal battle for an alleged breach of competition law due to their European interchange credit card fees. The claim was issued for £14 billion, highlighting the potential value of class action claims, however, the CAT approved settlement was only £200 million. The value of the claim and the length of litigation therefore likely generated a large invoice for Mastercard’s legal representatives.
Within private practice, the main focus is about retaining and expanding clients. To do such, you need to understand the concerns of your clients. Class actions provide a financial and reputation risk to UK and international corporates. Therefore, class actions is a good commercial awareness topic when assessing the threats to clients. For example, many law firms represent banks, therefore you could discuss specifically how the rise in class actions are a threat to financial service institutions and how this impacts the particular chamber or firm that you are applying to.
It would be good if you linked this threat to the particular sector that the firm interviewing you operates in as class actions span many sectors, such as:
If the firm you are applying to has a strong presence in one of these sectors, it would good to explain why this sector interests you and how the firm could utilise their expertise by potentially expanding into class actions (if they do not already operate in this specific type of litigation). It would be useful to find a recent class action case within this sector and explain the legal implications to the interviewer.
Whilst claimants to date have struggled to receive large settlements, in Merricks v Mastercard (2025), the CAT emphasised that class actions need to operate for the benefit of the claimants and recognised the role that legal representation and commercial litigation funding play in securing a fair and just outcome for the claimants. Therefore, whilst following the rise of class actions, it is also important to consider the impact on third party litigation funders, especially as it has been reported that England and Wales has the second largest third party funding market in the world.
The government is reviewing the operation and impact of opt-out class actions therefore potential reform could be made, likely to strengthen consumer protection (however, the government has acknowledged the need to balance economic growth and consumer protection). This would be a useful commercial awareness topic to follow.
Loading More Content