The Law Commission of England & Wales announces a review of a potential new class actions regime

By Libby Amos-Stone, Nicola Chesaites & Katya Farkas on May 7, 2026

Posted in Competition, Product Liability, Product Safety, UK Law

Background

On 20 April 2026, the Law Commission, an independent organisation established to keep the law of England and Wales under review and recommend reform, announced a new project to consider the potential introduction of a consumer class actions regime in England and Wales. While independent, the Law Commission’s project is sponsored by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), which is completing its review of the current competition collective (class) action regime that was introduced in the UK in 2015. There has long been speculation that the government would use competition claims as a pilot before expanding the regime to consumer claims, including product liability and other claims, and this could be the first step in that process.

The Terms of Reference do not shed much further light on the project at this stage, aside from identifying that its purpose is to “set out the benefits and risks associated with the introduction of a collective class actions regime for consumer law claims…”.

However, it is a further signal that consumer protection and providing meaningful recourse for consumers has become a greater policy priority as it follows the recent implementation of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which significantly overhauled UK consumer protection in digital markets, strengthening rights against fake reviews, drip pricing, subscription contract traps and other unfair practices.

This project will not consider substantive consumer rights but is instead squarely focussed on the design of a powerful new private enforcement mechanism to allow opt-out class actions to facilitate mass consumer claims in the UK. This should be seen against a backdrop of growing pressure on the existing competition collective action regime where claimants have sought to characterise consumer law claims as competition claims in order to bring them before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) as an opt-out collective action. The CAT has pushed back on this, reminding parties in one recent case that “competition law is not a general law of consumer protection”. A dedicated consumer class actions regime would remove the need for such creative framing and, in doing so, would significantly expand the pool of claims that can be brought on an opt-out basis.

If the Law Commission’s decision is to recommend the introduction of a class actions regime for consumer claims, then it will also make recommendations as to the design of such a regime.

Scope and objectives

The Law Commission has stated that any such recommendations will seek to:

improve consumers’ access to redress, both by securing redress in court and by ensuring that damages are distributed to the affected class; and
promote the efficient conduct of litigation at proportionate cost.

In terms of the design of such a regime, consideration will be given to:

what should constitute a “consumer law claim” for the purposes of any class action regime (this is critical because the scope is potentially huge);
whether the regime should allow for “opt-in” as well as “opt-out” claims (which is already the case for competition claims);
the criteria and process for commencing a class action, including how a “class” should be defined;
management of class action proceedings; and
damages, costs and settlement, including the funding of claims, taking into account any reforms to litigation funding as a consequence of the Civil Justice Council’s review.

Interaction with the ongoing review of the competition collective action regime

The Law Commission must also consider the Government’s conclusions in its ongoing review of the current opt-out regime for competition claims in the CAT, which remains to be published, including on the following issues:

methods of financing opt-out collective proceedings;
whether certain sectors are disproportionately targeted by litigants;
the effectiveness of distribution of damages;
evidence of pent-up demand for opt-out consumer protection claims;
the role of certification in an opt-out regime; and
how vulnerable opt-out collective proceedings are currently to being exploited and creating a litigation culture.

The second and final points are pro-defendant in what is broadly a claimant-friendly area of policy development, consistent with the direction of recent European legislation, such as the EU Representative Actions Directive (which enables qualified entities to bring collective redress actions on behalf of consumers) and the new EU Product Liability Directive (which intends to lowers the burden of proof for individual claimants). Until more recently, many judgments in competition collective actions were very claimant-friendly. This is an opportunity for the Law Commission and the DBT to consider whether the aim of balancing collective redress and the burden on businesses of speculative and unmeritorious claims has been achieved under the current regime and how that could be improved in any new consumer class action regime. It remains to be seen whether additional safeguards will be regarded as necessary.

Next steps

Work on the project is expected to begin in Autumn 2026. The Law Commission will meet with stakeholders to understand their experiences and perspectives, and to help formulate its proposals for reform, which will then be published in a consultation paper.

The Law Commission has invited views in response to its Initial Scoping Questionnaire by 30 October 2026.

The scoping questionnaire represents an early and important opportunity for consumer-facing businesses, including those in the life sciences sector, to shape the design of any future regime before positions solidify.

Outlook

The introduction of a consumer class actions regime, particularly if structured as an opt-out regime, would mark a significant step towards an increasingly claimant-friendly landscape in UK consumer protection law. That said, it is important to keep perspective on the timeline: even if the Law Commission ultimately recommends reform, any legislation would require further consultation, government consideration and parliamentary time. This means meaningful change, if it comes, remains some years away. In the interim, it will be instructive to see how the consultation paper develops and how it interacts with the findings of the Law Commission’s ongoing review of the UK’s product liability regime (details of which can be found in our previous post).

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