The two-day Conference,featuring a combination of invited talks and submiHed papers, will address a set of topical issues on collective redress and digital fairness: from maHers concerning the effectiveness of currently available remedies and procedures, to questions addressing the normative foundations of collective redress and the role of collective private enforcement in regulating EU digital law. The Conference aims to critically assess the role of collective redress in promoting digital fairness, ensuring adequate access to justice and enforcing digital rights. By bringing together experts – both academics and legal practitioners – from different backgrounds and jurisdictions, it bridges a gap between theoretical, doctrinal, and practical approaches to these very topical issues.

As Big Tech increasingly influences many fields, including public speech, digital governance, market competition, consumer protection, and fundamental rights, the European legal landscape is evolving in two key directions. First, the EU’s regulatory efforts have led to a digital acquis that regulates the services and products offered by digital corporations, their contractual and market position vis a vis business users and competitors, as well as the practices (data processing and advertising) which sit at the core of their business model. Second, recent developments in collective redress have opened new pathways for ensuring effective access to justice across Europe, offering real potential for enforcing digital rights.  In several Member States, notably the Netherlands, Austria and Germany, a growing tendency towards collective litigation in the digital sphere can be identified, with consumer and data protection cases standing firmly at the forefront of civil society's attention.

Recent cases, in particular on GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) enforcement, have challenged unlawful data processing agreements and data collection practices. Similarly, collective actions on consumer protection have targeted user interface designs that manipulates consumer behaviour. New legal frameworks, such as the Digital Market Act (Regulation 2022/1925) and the Digital Service Act (Regulation 2022/2065), create additional opportunities to challenge – also through collective redress – unfair and illegal practices in the digital sphere. Moreover, a new substantive framework is slowly taking shape regulating product design and liability, first with the adoption of the AI Act and the revision of the Product Liability Directive (Directive 2024/2853). To this, new instruments could soon be adopted, such as the recently discussed Digital Fairness Act.

While a certain degree of coordination with the Representative Action Directive (Directive 2020/1828) is ensured in many of these instruments, the potential of collective redress of this emerging framework is yet to be unveiled. Several legal, economic, normative, and political questions connected to the role of collective private enforcement in the protection of digital rights remain open, and urgently need discussion.

Despite its promise, collective redress in the digital sphere faces several challenges. Within the EU, there are significant differences between national legal systems, which is reflected in the rise of collective (digital rights) litigation in some jurisdictions versus its absence in others. Further complications may arise from the risk dynamics of collective actions, as well as the many different actors at play, raising questions of representation, resources and other factors that influence the litigation landscape. Moreover, the potential of collective actions in upholding a high standard of digital fairness depends on their ability to prevent excessive or frivolous litigation. In this regard, it is widely recognized that a balanced approach is needed.

Against this background, the Conference focuses on the intersection of collective redress and digital fairness, understood broadly as the equitable treatment of individuals and society in the digital space, ensuring that the rights of users, consumers, and businesses are protected against unfair, exploitative, or manipulative practices. Collective redress provides an essential avenue for civil society groups and affected individuals to tackle complex, large-scale and/or systemic infringements, to establish liability and provide effective remedies. Additionally, collective litigation may be seen through the lens of regulation theory, where private actions by civil society and various interests-group become an essential complement to public enforcement and a step to ensure corporate accountability and systemic solutions. At the same time, this may seem at odds with traditional private law paradigms that emphasize corrective justice and individual autonomy in bilateral relationships, highlighting the need to reassess the theoretical and normative foundations of collective redress.

The Conference aims to examine the function and functioning of collective redress in the context of digital fairness. It will explore key questions such as:

• What are the theoretical and normative foundations of collective redress?
• How effective is collective redress in the digital legal sphere at international, European, and national levels?
• How do digital rights intersect with other branches of law (e.g., consumer and competition law), and what does this mean for collective actions?
• What impact does litigation have on the compliance and governance of digital corporations?
• How do private and public enforcement interact, and what role do collective actions play within this regulatory framework?
• What is the role of private law and private law remedies in shaping digital fairness, and how does it constrain or contribute to collective redress mechanisms?

The conference will take place on 10-11 December 2025 in Amsterdam (exact location to be defined) and combines invited talks and a selection of submitted papers (see Call for Paper, below).

The program seeks to bring together diverse perspectives from various legal backgrounds and methodologies, encompassing procedural and substantive law, as well as theoretical, doctrinal, and empirical studies from national, European, and transnational viewpoints. The conference expressly aims to bridge the gap between academia, legal practice, and policy, while fostering dialogue between U.S. and EU approaches to collective litigation and digital fairness. To this end, keynote speakers from multiple backgrounds and jurisdictions will be invited. While the papers will primarily be academic, practitioners will participate as discussants, offering insights on the practical implications of these issues for the litigation landscape in Europe.

The Collective Redress and Digital Fairness conference – organized by the University of Amsterdam with the support of the Stichting Onderzoek Collectieve Actie – seeks to examine the intersection of collective redress and digital fairness, understood as the equitable treatment of individuals and society in the digital space. Given the complexity and scale of Big Tech violations, collective redress is an essential avenue for civil society groups and affected individuals to challenge systemic breaches, establish liability, and provide effective remedies.

This two-day conference, held on 10 and 11 December 2025 in Amsterdam (location to be defined), will feature a combination of invited talks and selected papers. Contributions should explore topical issues related to collective redress, including the effectiveness of remedies, the normative foundations of collective redress, and the role of private enforcement in regulating EU digital law. We particularly welcome papers addressing questions such as:

• What are the theoretical and normative foundations of collective redress?
• How effective is collective redress in the digital legal sphere at international, European, and national levels?
• How do digital rights intersect with other branches of law (e.g., consumer and competition law), and what does this mean for collective actions?
• What impact does litigation have on the compliance and governance of digital corporations?
• How do private and public enforcement interact, and what role do collective actions play within this regulatory framework?
• What is the role of private law and private law remedies in shaping digital fairness, and how does it constrain or contribute to collective redress mechanisms?

The conference language will be English. However, final papers may be submitted in Dutch, provided that the Authors also share with the conference participants an extended summary of their paper in English.

Submission Guidelines

We invite submissions of papers on topics directly connected to the conference theme. Contributions may focus on procedural and substantive law aspects, as well as theoretical, doctrinal, and empirical studies from national, European, and transnational perspectives. Submissions should include

• an extended abstract (max. 1000 words), in English, delineating the paper research question/topic, methodology, and main arguments advanced;
• a short bio of the Author/s (max 150 words).

Documents should be addressed to collectiveredressdigitalfairness-fdr@uva.nl, with the subject line “Submission – Collective Redress and Digital Fairness”, by 1 June, 2025.

Authors of the selected papers will receive notification of acceptance by 20 June 2025 and are expected to share their papers for circulation among the conference participants by 16 November 2025.

The Submission documents should be in English. The final paper can be in English or Dutch, provided that the Authors also share a synthesis of the paper in English.

Travel expenses of invited Speakers will be reimbursed in accordance with the Conference guidelines—covering up to one night’s stay (provided by the organization) and round-trip travel to and from Amsterdam with a maximum allowance of €350. While we aim to adhere to these parameters, reasonable adjustments may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Dr J.M.L. van Duin, Dr F. Episcopo, Dr A.L. Jonkers, Dr S. De Rey (UvA – Amsterdam Centre for Transformative Private Law), with the support of the Stichting Onderzoek Collectieve Actie.

The conference builds on the organizers’ previous and current research in the field of effective judicial protection, collective redress, private enforcement of digital law, and private law remedies, particularly through the DTDM-funded project APPLIED (Assessing Private Parties Litigation in the Economy of Data), and the ACT research project Integraal Privaatrecht.