Opposition spokesman on justice José Herrera told Parliament on Tuesday that there must be changes to other pieces of legislation for the aims of the Collective Proceedings Bill to be achieved.

He said that such a change must be made in the current legislation requiring defendants to have assets in Malta for the courts to have jurisdiction. The law should declare which would be the applicable law to the lawsuit: whether the law of the state in which the foreign businessman was domiciled or Maltese law.

Dr Herrera said that for this procedure to take place, there needed to be amendments to the legislative framework. He noted that sometimes, newly-enacted legislation was in tension with traditional legal principles applied in Malta for a long time.

Should there be no clarity on these issues, the only collective proceedings that would take place would be locally: a potential of one or two actions.

Earlier, Dr Herrera said that there should be access to remedy when consumers’ rights were breached.

When consumers were affected by businessmen’s bad practice, they met obstacles of access and expenses. While they had the option to go to court individually, a collective proceeding would be more beneficial as it would be cheaper and more effective. Maltese legislation already provided for collective proceedings, such as in the liquidation of companies.

The Bill would give the judge discretion to decide whether the action should be classified as collective. Should he decide that the action should not be classified as collective, he would order that it be individually yet he would not annul it.

Dr Herrera asked how would a class representative be chosen: the Bill only provided that such representative was to be approved by the court.Concluding, Dr Herrera said that the Bill was courageous and innovative. While it was important to enact good legislation, one should also appoint the best people to form part of the judicature.

Noel Farrugia (PL) said the Bill protected consumers’ rights and this was very important considering Malta was a net importer. However, he queried when individuals would be allowed to make a class action in the case they have suffered mishaps due to government decisions.

In this respect , Mr Farrugia mentioned various instances of malpractice in the ambit of consumer services such as the case of students who were not offered the service of a learning support assistant and the instance of dementia patients who were treated with a drug which reduced their lifespan in the long run. Mr Farrugia said that even in these cases consumers should be protected and the Bill should empower such consumers as well.

Mr Farrugia said this sector was sensitive and citizens should not be prejudiced by budget cuts.

This year, the budget was downsized by €40 million and this resulted in less funds being given to agencies which offered important social service. Legislation should always be enacted for the common good and both sellers and buyers should be protected.