Collective redress is a term used in the European Union to describe a variety of judicial mechanisms for resolving mass disputes, i.e. disputes in which numerous claimants bring a single action or procedure.1 Although actual collective redress mechanisms have existed since the 1960s2 in the US, it was not until the late 1990s that these mechanisms really started to evolve in Europe.3 At first, most mass disputes seemed to be confined within national borders, resulting in the resolution of mass disputes on a national level. However, the global increase in cross-border trade and financial transactions—further fuelled within Europe by the formation of both the European Union and the European Economic and Monetary Union, as well as the use of modern telecommunications technologies such as the internet