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Belgian class actions: courts, scope, standing, opt-in/opt-out, procedure, settlements, costs, funding and appeals—practitioner Q&A (Law stated: 6 October 2022)

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Class actions—Belgium—Q&A guide

This Practice Note presents a Belgium-focused Q&A on class actions, issued within the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (law stated as at 6 October 2022). Authors: White & Case—Olivier Vanhulst; Nicolas Vande Velde; Julien Hislaire.

Describe how the court system is arranged in relation to collective or representative proceedings (class actions). In which courts can such actions be filed? Relying on article XVII.35 of the Belgian Code of Economic Law (BCEL) and article 633-ter of the Belgian Judicial Code, the Enterprise Court of Brussels and, on appeal, the Court of Appeal of Brussels, possess exclusive competence to hear class actions. A ruling of the Court of Appeal of Brussels may ultimately be brought before the Court of Cassation, though this remedy is confined to examining errors of law or procedure.
How frequent are class actions in your jurisdiction? What has been the recent stance of legislators and the judiciary towards class actions? To date, only a small number of class actions have been commenced. More specifically, since the Law of 28 March 2014 (the Class Action Law) entered into force, which introduced class actions...

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