sec_6__para__5

Despite the clear benefits of collective actions under Article 7(2), such actions must not undermine the right of consumers who bring parallel individual actions seeking a declaration of the unfairness of a contract term to dissociate themselves from the collective action regarding similar terms used in contracts of the same type. As explained by the Court (518), individual and collective actions under the UCTD are complementary and have different purposes and legal effects. A collective action for an injunction aims at the abstract, general assessment of whether a contract term is unfair, whereas an individual action entails a specific examination of the contract term in the light of the particular circumstances of the case (519). Consequently, collective actions can have only a limited procedural impact on individual actions, justified in particular by the sound administration of justice and the need to avoid incompatible judicial decisions. Thus, Article 7 precludes a national rule requiring a court automatically to suspend an individual action brought before it by a consumer until a final judgment in a parallel collective action brought by an association is handed down (520).

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.