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[null,"Prepared By:","Contributors:"]
[null,"Ellex Klavins","Katrina Eimane"]
[null,null,"Daiga Zivtina"]
[]
[]
["Litigation Arbitration & Dispute Resolution EU Directive Actions Guide"]
[]
["Report Generated: 5/1/2025"]
[]
["View your report results on next tab"]

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["Question","Latvia"]
["Representative Action Mechanisms"]
["Representative Action Mechanisms: Does a collective action mechanism already exists in your jurisdiction, and if so, is the Directive implemented as a part of or as a separate mechanism?","Until now, there have been no representative (collective) action mechanisms in Latvia. The \nConsumer Rights Protection Law (henceforth – \"\nCRPL\") provides certain rights to the Consumer Rights Protection Center and to the associations for consumer rights protection to represent the consumers’ interests, but they do not work as collective action mechanisms. Also, an \nactio popularis is provided in the \nEnvironmental Protection Law, whereby any member of the public, including associations, is entitled to contest acts of state or local government institutions in administrative proceedings if such acts do not meet the requirements of environmental laws or create threats of damage or environmental damage, but these are not considered collective actions as well.\nThe \nDirective 2020/1828 is implemented as a separate mechanism via amendments to the \nCRPL and via amendments to the \nCivil Procedure Law (henceforth – \"\nCPL\"), which entered force on 15 October 2023. The amendments provide the competence of the court of general jurisdiction to review consumers’ collective claims brought by a qualified institution.\n"]
["Claims which can be brought in a Representative Action"]
["Claims which can be brought in a Representative Action: Which claims can be brought? Which redress measures are available other than compensation?","Collective actions can be brought for compensation for damages done to the consumers or for establishing and stopping violation of their rights, together with the compensation for damages. Violation of the collective interests of consumers may be established by the court, the Consumer Rights Protection Center or another relevant supervisory and control institution.\n"]
["Costs"]
["Costs: To what extent must the unsuccessful party pay the costs of the proceedings, must they pay all costs or only a part of them, and if so, which part?","Standard rules of \nCPL apply to the costs of the proceedings in the collective consumer actions. The obligation of the unsuccessful party to fully pay the court expenses is established in \nArticle 41 (1) of the \nCPL. In case the claim is partially satisfied, then the court expenses are paid by both parties proportionally to the amount of the satisfied and rejected claims. The principle for reimbursement of the attorney’s fees is the same, but the rules are more detailed, for example, there are caps depending on the amount of the claim (\nArticle 44(1) of \nCPL).\nAdditionally, the qualified entity during litigation may request the court to recover from the respondent expenses related to the collective action, meaning expenses on informing consumers regarding the action. The Cabinet of Ministers has adopted a regulation, providing that the maximum amount of expenses that may be recovered is EUR 10,000.  \n"]
["Transitional Law"]
["Transitional Law: Are there any peculiarities regarding national transitional provisions in relation to Article 22?","There are no national transitional provisions relating to collective actions.\n"]
["Opt-in vs opt-out"]
["Opt-in vs opt-out: How are opt-in/opt-out mechanisms regulated (in particular, whether in the context of an order for redress – both domestic and cross-border – claims are permitted on an opt-in or an opt-out basis)?","Claims are permitted on an opt-in basis. The consumer shall submit an application to the qualified institution, indicating certain information, such as the basis for the claim for compensation, and consent to the qualified institution to represent the consumer and others (\nArticle 26 of \nCRPL).\nAccording to \nArticles 26 (4) and \n(5) of \nCRPL, if a registration fee is determined for participation in the collective action, then the consumer shall have to pay this fee within the term set by the institution. Otherwise, his participation will be refused.\nArticle 26 of the \nCRPLdefines the consumer's right to withdraw from the collective action if he does not agree to the settlement. If the consumer withdraws, the registration fee is not refunded.\n"]
["Qualified Entities (QEs)"]
["Qualified Entities (QEs): What criteria apply to the designation of QEs, with special regard to the designation of QEs for the purpose of bringing domestic representative actions?","Article 23 of the \nCRPLdetermines that if the association representing consumer interests wants to obtain the status of a qualified institution permanently or for a specific claim (\nad hoc), the association will have to submit a request to the Consumer Rights Protection Center. The request must certify that the association complies with the criteria established in \nArticle 4 (3) of the \nDirective 2020/1828. After that, the Consumer Rights Protection Center decides on the granting of status in accordance with the \nAdministrative Procedure Law.\n"]
["Class Criteria/Certification"]
["Class Criteria/Certification: What is the class criteria/certification stage applicable to representative actions, including provisions, if any, that give substance to the requirement “to dismiss manifestly unfounded cases at the earliest possible stage of the proceedings”?","Article 26 (1) of the \nCRPL stipulates that the qualified institution can file a collective action in court, if 1) at least five consumers have been approved in the consumer collective action; 2) consumer claims are against the same defendant or defendants; 3) consumer claims are based on the same or similar factual and legal circumstances.\nRequirements of \nArticle 7 (7) of the Directive 2020/1828 regarding dismissing of manifestly unfounded cases are implemented through \nArticle 23 (3) of the \nCRPL in case of administrative proceedings. With regard to courts, \nArticle 132 of the \nCPL already provides ten situations when the court has the right to refuse to accept the claim in case of some obvious faults.   \n"]
["Third-Party Litigation Funding"]
["Third-Party Litigation Funding: Please describe how third-party funding is regulated, with special regard to funding of representative actions for redress measures. Can the court order the representative organization to disclose the funding agreement, and if so, will the defendant also receive a copy?","Article 26 of the \nCRPL provides that the expenses of the qualified institutions related to the consumer collective action can be covered from the state budget funds, which are allocated to the Consumer Rights Protection Center. The conditions for granting funding, including for legal proceedings, will be determined in separate regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers.\nThere is no requirement to disclose the funding agreement to the defendant or any other party. However, \nArticle 26 of the \nCRPL determines that the qualified institution must disclose to the court and the Consumer Rights Protection Center a financial report, that lists the sources of funds used to support the consumer collective action if the court or the Consumer Rights Protection Center has doubts about the conflict of interest of the financier of the institution.\n"]
["Redress Settlements"]
["Redress Settlements: How are settlements regulated, with special regard to “rules according to which individual consumers concerned by the action and by the subsequent settlement are given the possibility to accept or to refuse to be bound by settlements” if such rules are set out in your jurisdiction?","The requirements of \nArticle 11 (4) of the \nDirective 2020/1828, first implemented in Article 26\n (1) of the \nCRPL, provide that if the consumer does not agree to the settlement reached, he is able to withdraw from the consumer class action and will not be included in the settlement. On the other hand, the fact that the settlement will be binding on the plaintiff, the defendant and the consumers involved in the case will be determined by \nArticle 250 (2) of the \nCPL.\n"]
["Public Information/Database of Representative Actions"]
["Public Information/Database of Representative Actions: How are the publication of information and database of representative actions regulated, with special regard to any requirement of judicial vetting (e.g. court-approved description of the action), scope of information to be published, time of publishing etc.?","Article 26 of the \nCRPL provides that the qualified institution shall publish information on inviting consumers to apply for a collective action. The institution must also notify the Consumer Rights Protection Center, which in turn will publish the information on its website and social networks.\nArticle 26 of the \nCRPL stipulates that the qualified institution shall inform those consumers, who are participating in the collective action, about the court judgment, offered settlements and other aspects of the proceedings.\nOther types of databases are not envisaged in the \nCRPLor \nCPL amendments.\n"]
["Discovery/Disclosure"]
["Discovery/Disclosure: Are there any special discovery/disclosure rules applicable to representative actions, or collective (non-unitary) actions in general? If there are no such rules either, please briefly refer to the general discovery/disclosure rules.","In the context of \nArticle 18 of the \nDirective 2020/1828, there is already a general procedural regulation on the request for evidence in \nArticles 93 (2), 112 and \n116 of the \nCPL, which provide for the right of a party who does not have specific evidence relevant to the case to ask the court to request this evidence from state or municipal institutions and other natural or legal persons. The party requesting the evidence shall describe such evidence and provide reasons for presuming that the evidence is in the possession of the respective person. In the case of written evidence, if a party refuses to submit the evidence requested by the court, without denying that the party possesses such evidence, the court may find as proved facts that the opposite party sought to prove by referring to such evidence.\n"]
["Cross-Border Actions"]
["Cross-Border Actions: Are there any procedural mechanisms and other requirements for cross-border representative actions?","Article 23 of \nCRPLstipulates that the list of permanently qualified institutions published by the European Commission will be considered sufficient evidence to confirm the right of the relevant institution to bring a collective consumer action in court. It does not prevent the court from verifying that the aim established in the articles of association of the qualified institution justifies bringing the collective action.\n"]
["Cy près Awards"]
["Cy près Awards: Are there any rules “on the destination of any outstanding redress funds that were not recovered within the established time limits”?","As can be seen from the annotation of the amendments to the \nCRPL, the \nCRPLwill not provide provisions on the destination of any outstanding redress funds that are not recovered within the established time limits.\n"]
["Other"]
["Other: Please provide any further comment that you deem worthy of note.","None at this time.\n"]