In our previous post (link), we informed you about the draft Act on Civil Class Proceedings. This act has been approved in the legislative process under the number 179/2024 Coll. (the “Act”) and has already entered into force on 1 July 2024. Below we provide an overview of the most important changes by which the legislator modified the original regulation contained in the draft Act (which we have already written about – see above).

The Act allows a group of affected consumers to resolve similar claims in consumer disputes in a single lawsuit. However, unlike the Civil Code, the Act also considers entrepreneurs who employ fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover or annual balance sheet total does not exceed CZK 50,000,000 to be consumers (a legal entity may also be a consumer within the meaning of the Act).

Compared to the original civil class action bill, the Act reduced the required minimum number of registered consumers from 20 to 10. This is one of the conditions for the admissibility of a class action. If a sufficient number of consumers do not join the class action even after the expiry of the additional time limit set by the court, the court will dismiss the class action.  Reducing the minimum number of registered consumers will allow class actions to be more widely used and have a greater chance of being heard.

The court’s deadline for deciding on the admissibility of a class action has also been regulated differently. Compared to the original bill, according to which the court was to decide within 2 months of the commencement of the class action, the Act requires the court to issue a decision on the admissibility of the class action as a matter of priority, within the shortest possible time. The same deadline was set for the court to issue a decision on the appeal.

The last significant change that was reflected in the Act concerns the plaintiff’s monetary remuneration. The maximum amount of the percentage of remuneration has been increased from only 5% to 16% of the awarded benefit. However, the plaintiff may also propose in the class action that the monetary remuneration be awarded to him in a lump sum with a limit of up to CZK 2,500,000.  The determination of the plaintiff’s monetary remuneration by means of a lump sum will be used especially in cases where the subject of the class action is the imposition of a non-monetary obligation, where the nature of the dispute precludes the determination of the fee as a percentage. If the court at least partially upholds the class action, it will order the defendant to pay the plaintiff a fee corresponding to that set out in the order on the admissibility of the class action. However, if the amount of the remuneration has been determined as a percentage of the awarded performance and this performance exceeds the amount of 100,000,000, CZK the court may reduce the amount of the percentage fee by up to half, even without a petition. However, it must consider whether the original amount of the percentage fee does not appear to be adequate in view of the actual complexity and length of the collective proceedings.