No opt-out collective redress regime outside competition law

The UK's only opt-out class regime sits at the Competition Appeal Tribunal under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Lloyd v Google closed the representative-action route for mass damages in 2021, so data-breach, consumer, environmental and financial mass harms rely on opt-in group litigation orders, which are expensive, low-take-up and funder-dependent. The Law Commission announced a consumer class actions project in May 2026, commencing autumn 2026 with stakeholder input to 30 October, and it is limited to consumer law and years from legislation. The DBT's August 2025 call for evidence on the tribunal regime could even narrow existing rights. Victims of unlawful data processing currently have no viable collective damages route.

Mass low-value harms, from breaches affecting millions to mis-selling and drip pricing, go unremedied because individual claims are uneconomic, and wrongdoers keep the gains. Competition law shows opt-out certification works. The gap channels meritorious claims into regulatory complaints that pay no compensation.

A Collective Redress Act creating a generic certified opt-out procedure in the High Court with tribunal-style certification safeguards. The near-term step is funding and evidence for the Law Commission project 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.