Abstract
The paper addresses a key topic of collective civil procedure - the question of opt-in and opt-out mechanisms in group litigation. After a brief analysis of constitutional and policy aspects of opt-in group proceedings, attention is paid to the opt-out mechanism.
Firstly, a pilot opt-out judgment of the British Competition Appeal Tribunal, elivered in a competition case (Dorothy Gibson v Pride Mobility Products Limited), is discussed and, secondly, position of the German Federal Constitutional Court on the US class action, as a typical opt-out proceeding, is analyzed. Result of the discussion - also in the context of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights - is the onclusion that choice between opt-in and opt-out group litigation is much more a legislative-policy problem than an issue of the right to a fair trial.