程序法视野下的消费者权益保护——德国团体诉讼的成功经验和集体权利实现的未来

团体诉讼是德国诉讼法中一项历史悠久、富有特色的制度,它从程序法的角度对消费者权利的实现起到了保障作用。本文首先介绍了团体诉讼引入《一般交易条款规制法》的立法背景,以及三十年来其在规制一般交易条款方面取得的成果,然后介绍了团体诉讼的另外一个用武之地:即《反不正当竞争法》中针对分散型或小额侵权行为的团体的"穷尽利润"诉讼,接着介绍和评析了欧盟的集体权利的实现机制。最后,作者介绍了正在试行中的《投资人示范诉讼法》,它针对的是因投资领域的虚假陈述所导致的群体性侵权纠纷;作为联邦司法部长,作者呼吁对这种诉讼方式加以研究,并将其引入到消费者保护领域,进一步丰富未来的消费者集体权利的实现途径。

'Associational Claims'is a legal institution with German characteristics and a long history.It guarantees the customers' rights in perspective of procedural law.The speaker firstly recalled the legislative background when considering to bring this kind of claim to'Contract Format Item Law',and its achievement in controlling the use of format items.Then she introduced another role that it plays in realizing customer rights:'skimming profit'claims according to the'Law Against Competition by Inappropriate Means'in contrast to torts which only deal with a small amount of damages.Thirdly,she criticized the mechanjsm in the EU.At last,she introduced the'Test Action of investors'.As the Federal Judicial Minister,she called on to do more research on this new way and develop it into a new means to realize the collective rights of customers.