Collective Settlement of Mass Claims in The Netherlands

As far as collective mass claim settlement is concerned, it has been said that ‘the European landscape is a mixed bag of differing collective redress mechanisms’. One of the legal sys-tems in this ‘mixed bag’ is the small jurisdiction of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. With the enactment of the 2005 Collective Settlement of Mass Damage Act (WCAM 2005) the Dutch legal system and indeed Dutch society has taken a significant (although far from perfect) step towards a more efficient resolution of mass damage claims. In this paper, I provide the reader with an outline of the Dutch legal system concerning the collective settlement of mass damage claims. Obviously, the emphasis is on the 2005 Collec-tive Settlement of Mass Damage Act (WCAM 2005). First I will give a brief outline of the fun-damental position of Dutch law with regard to collective action and a chronological overview of the developments towards the WCAM 2005. Then I will analyse the WCAM 2005 in more detail and commit some thoughts on the future amendment of the Act.