HomeInsightsOpt-out collective actions regime: Government launches Call for Evidence

The Department for Business and Trade has launched a Call for Evidence, inviting views on whether the opt-out collective actions regime ought to be updated. 

As the Call for Evidence explains, the existing regime was introduced 10 years ago following the passage of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. At the time, it was intended to make it easier for consumers to seek redress where they had suffered loss as a result of a breach of competition law.  

The original impact assessment estimated that the total cost to business of the regime would be in the order of £30 million per year. However, the Call for Evidence suggests that tens of billions of pounds in damages have been claimed in the past decade, in addition to hundreds of millions being spent on legal fees. As a result, whilst the Government maintains that consumers should continue to have a right of redress, it states that it is “aware of the potential burden on business that increased exposure to litigation can present”.  

It is not just the financial burden that was unexpected: the Call for Evidence points out other ways that the regime is not working as anticipated. First, the vast majority of cases before the CAT are standalone cases where no regulatory investigation has yet been undertaken or concluded, rather than so-called ‘follow-on’ cases which, as the name suggests, follow an adverse finding by the Competition and Market Authority or European Commission. Second, only one case has reached judgment in the CAT, meaning that the regime fails to set any meaningful precedents on matters such as damages and distribution. 

In the light of this, the Call for Evidence is broad in its scope, asking how the regime could be improved in everything from removing the financial barriers, to bringing a claim in the first place, to the scope of the regime, to how funds should be distributed. It also invites views on whether there are other routes to redress that may be more effective such as ADR and voluntary redress schemes. 

The Call for Evidence closes on 14 October 2025, and can be read in full here