According to this December 9, 2010 Bloomberg article from Adriana Lopez Caraveo and Jens Erik Gould, the Mexican Senate has passed a bill that would introduce a form of class action litigation to Mexico. According to the article:
The bill, which now moves to the lower house, would allow Mexicans to bring class action suits against companies that provide consumer goods and services, financial services or that cause environmental damage, according to the bill. Mexican law doesn’t currently allow for such lawsuits.
For more on the bill, see this December 10 article in The News from Víctor Mayén, which characterizes the bill as authorizing collective actions
regarding the consumption of private or public goods and services, environmental services and financial services that harm the consumer, due to monopolistic or other undue practices.
Neither article assesses the odds of the bill’s passage in the lower house, although the unanimous passage in the Senate would appear to suggest that the chances are good.
The legislation follows an amendment to article 17 of the Mexican constitution, passed in June, granting authority to the legislature to pass legislation regulating class or collective actions. For more on the amendment, see this entry posted in June at the Stanford University global class actions clearinghouse.
Despite a (somewhat) diligent Internet search, I have not been able to locate an English translation of the Bill, so unfortunately I can’t report on any of the details of the legislation. This August 2008 report from emii.com hinted that the legislation being considered in Mexico at the time was following a more “Latin American” pattern, as distinguished from US-style class action procedure.
If any readers have more information about this bill, we welcome your comments.
In April 2011 the Mexican Parliament approved a legislative package that regulates such actions, foreseeing the publication of the same in the Federal Official Gazette during the month of July. The amended laws are six: (1) Federal Code of Civil Proceedings; (2) Federal Civil Code; (3) Federal Law of Economic Competence; (4) Federal Law of Consumer’s Protection; (4) Organic Law of the Federal Judicial Power; (5) General Law of Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection; and (6) Law of Protection to the User of Financial Services. On August 30th 2011, the Federal Official Gazette published this amendment to the federal law.
Legislation limits collective actions to matters related to the consumption of goods or services (public or private) and the environment.
[…] Friday afternoon, I received a comment to a December post entitled Are Class Actions About to Make a Run for the Border? that deserved a more conspicuous mention. The comment came from Mexican attorney Jorge de […]
@ Jorge de Hoyos Walther: would you please link to the Federal Official Gazettearticle you are speaking of?