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Collective protection of consumer interests is a relatively new institut in consumer protection in Europe. The protection procedure started with the adoption of specific European Parliament and Council Directives, and the Recommendation of the Commission of the European Union. In some European national legislation, collective protection is regulated by the Consumer Protection Act, but it is also offered by adopting the special provisions in existing civil procedural laws regarding the protection of collective rights and interests. The expansion of the concept of collective protection has come under the great influence of the institute of class actions, which has its roots upon American legal system. The collective protection offers different types of redress, which do not envisage the same protection content. First subtype of collective redress is an injunctive collective redress, a legal mechanism that ensures possibility to claim cessation of legal behaviour collectively by two or more natural or legal persons or an entity eniteled to bring a representative action. Second subtype of collective redress is a compensatory collective redress, which is a legal mechanism that ensures a possibility to claim compensation collectively by two or more natural or legal person or by an entity entiteled to bring a representative action. In both cases, the entiteled entities that can bring a representative are established by law, and those are the subjects that within their registered or regulated activity, deal with the protection of established collective rights and interests (in Bosnia and Herzegovina those are: Consumer Protection Associations, Ombudsman for the protection of consumers, competent authorities of the Entities, etc.). Protection of the collective interests is essentially based on the protection of the collective interests of certain protected groups. Collective protection can occur in different areas, from the field of environmental protection, protection from discrimination, areas of protection of competition law, to the field of collective protection of consumers, all depending on the protected collective interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addressing the problem of collective consumer protection, it is essential to determine the entities that the concept refers to, define the consumers' collective interest and thereupon proceed with the collective redress procedure. Considering the diverse aspects of consumers' identity, it is rather difficult to discern their collective interests and designate a single entity to represent a variety of individual interests. The problem of recognizing the concept of collective redress primarily stems from the inadequate conceptual framework concerning the protection of collective interests. In cases where the claimant seeking redress is a consumer association, the judicial practice has always had difficulty in differentiating the interests of the association as a whole from those which may be interpreted as individual interests. The practical implications of failing to discern between the legal interest and the procedural legitimacy may give rise to ample problems in the application of collective protection. The crucial problems may be observed in the application of the collective redress mechanism, the lack of consumer awareness of being entitled to use this protection mechanism, extremely high procedure costs, the length and complexity of court proceedings, the insufficient experience of judges to deal with cases involving this subject matter, the lack of uniform regulation and a huge discrepancy between the national rules regulating this issue in the EU Member States, the language barriers and costs in cases involving crossborder compensation claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]