The Developments of Collective Redress in Taiwan

This paper seeks to provide a holistic investigation and recommendations for the consumer collective redress system in Taiwan. As for monetary redress, this essay argues that the plaintiff’s standing and the procedure for massive damages and small dispersive damages should be distinguished. It should be considered that the qualified group may file a collective action for the small dispersive damages as a whole group right of consumers without the assignments of individual consumers, and the compensation could be awarded to the special fund and not be distributed to individual consumers. To improve the efficiency of the procedure, this essay also reinterprets current Taiwan’s statutes and reimagines, under which the court may first rule on whether the defendant is liable for damages. Only when the court finds the defendant liable does the court publish a notice inviting other victims to join in the collective action and appoint the named plaintiff to sue on their behalf. Collective Redress requires a significant amount of manpower and monetary resources, but the resources that are available to the consumer qualified groups in Taiwan remain inadequate. Regarding the collective settlement, the current Taiwanese law also fails to adequately specify rules to strengthen both the due process guarantee of the group members and the judicial review.