No opt-out collective redress regime outside competition law

The UK's only opt-out class regime is the Competition Appeal Tribunal's (Consumer Rights Act 2015). Lloyd v Google (2021) closed the CPR 19.8 representative-action route for mass damages, so data-breach, consumer, environmental and financial mass harms rely on opt-in group litigation orders (expensive, low-take-up, funder-dependent). The Law Commission announced a consumer class actions project in May 2026 (commencing autumn 2026, stakeholder input to 30 October 2026), but it is limited to consumer law and years from legislation; the DBT's August 2025 call for evidence on the CAT regime could even narrow existing rights. This cross-references the surveillance/privacy domain's redress entries: victims of unlawful data processing currently have no viable collective damages route.

Mass low-value harms (data breaches affecting millions, mis-selling, drip pricing) go unremedied because individual claims are uneconomic. Wrongdoers keep gains; deterrence fails. Every comparable regime question (competition) shows opt-out certification works. The gap channels meritorious claims into regulatory complaints that yield no compensation.

A Collective Redress Act creating a generic certified opt-out procedure in the High Court with CAT-style certification safeguards. The concrete near-term step is funding and evidence for the Law Commission project (consultation late 2026) and a government commitment to legislate on its recommendations, extended beyond consumer law to data and environmental claims.

// State-led: Instrument: Collective Redress Act on Law Commission recommendations; near-term outsider step is evidence to the consultation closing October 2026.

mass low-value harms go unremedied outside competition law, and the Law Commission's consumer-only project is years from legislation, so the near-term lever is shaping its late-2026 consultation.