The French legal system seems to be looking increasingly to the US for concepts to borrow when it comes to justice, a trend demonstrated late last year by the incorporation of plea bargaining into French criminal law. Then, on 4 January this year, President Jacques Chirac announced proposals for the introduction of class action lawsuits to France.

The recent move toward class action suits in France seems to have been made in an effort to promote the rights of consumers who have suffered from a wrongful practice. President Chirac told his Government: "Today, they [consumers] are deprived because, taken separately, none of the damages of which they are victims is sufficiently significant to cover the costs of a legal action. This is why I am asking the Government to propose a modification to the legislation to allow consumer groups and their associations to bring class actions against wrongful practices observed on certain markets."

French law already allows for 'action en representation conjointe' or 'action in joint representation', which permits groups of people to bring a single action. But even though this category of legal proceedings allows the interests of more than one person to be grouped together, each plaintiff must still present their own claims, which will be evaluated separately. This type of group action is highly criticised because it incorporates too many limitations to make it useful and is employed infrequently.

Consumer organisations that have a statutory purpose of defending consumer interests may also sue as a group under French law. However, the damages awarded when proceeding through this type of group representation may only compensate the association as a whole and not its individual members. Although actions brought by consumer organisations are on the increase, they are not as powerful as class action suits in gaining significant awards for victims.

These means of group representation do exist, but the French legal system currently does not permit class actions for several reasons. First, a principle of law called 'nul ne plaide par procureur' or 'no one shall plead by proxy' – which means that an individual must have a personal interest in the case that they have launched – interferes with lawsuits brought by representatives of a group. Class actions, however, allow claimants who may be in the relevant 'class' or group of people, but who are unaware of their direct involvement, to take part in an action.

Secondly, the French Civil Code stipulates that a judge may not decide on 'general provisions', because only the parliament may make decisions that are applicable to the general public. Finally, contrary to current French principles, class actions allow people to benefit from a court decision given in proceedings to which they were not party and, for instance, claim damages at a later date if they could have been members of the plaintiff 'class', but were not at the time of the case.

Consumer groups have long argued that the current system discourages consumers from taking action against a company for reasons of cost and time. Under the proposed initiative, when many people suffer identical damage, they would be able to aggregate their claims and have them evaluated together, and would be able to take action without being especially involved in the process. A claim would only be considered at one time for everyone, the compensation would be decided once and the claimants would each receive similar amounts in damages.

If President Chirac's proposal is written into law, there are safeguards that exist within the French legal system that would limit the impact of its implementation. The rules of evidence-gathering under French law are not based on discovery, which reduces the chances of claims being filed without sufficient grounds. Contingency fees and success fees do not exist to the same extent in France as elsewhere and jury trials are not applicable to civil and commercial matters, meaning unfounded cases could not be brought as easily. Finally, the principles of indemnification under French law exclude the possibility for punitive damages.

It is probable that the proposed draft bill would rely heavily on a model taken from the Quebec system. Under both systems, class action suits may be filed in many different types of cases, including securities law, in addition to consumer fraud, overtime violations, discrimination and harassment among others. The primary focus of President Chirac's statement was on the protection of consumer rights, but it is unclear whether the legislation under consideration would incorporate additional types of wrongdoing. Nevertheless, shareholders and workers' unions joined the consumer groups in expressing their support for the initiative.

Likewise, French solicitors seem to be in favour of the proposal. Medef, the organisation that represents the interests of French companies, however, is concerned that if the class action proposal goes into effect, it could lead to a sharp increase in litigation. Only time will tell whose concerns will be met in the end. President Chirac's announcement is only the beginning of an initiative that must still be drafted by the Government and considered by Parliament before a bill can be passed.

Thomas Rouhette is a partner specialising in commercial litigation and product liability and Amanda Croushore is a paralegal in Lovells' Paris office.