The Consumer Rights Act 2015 entered into force on 1 October 2015. The Act develops the law on private enforcement of competition law infringements, in a radical manner.
Previously, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) could only hear collective actions in reasonably limited circumstances, as such actions could only be brought on an opt-in basis, ie where claimants had to expressly assert class membership to be part of the proceedings. The new Consumer Rights Act introduces an opt-out procedure, which makes it easier to bring claims with large numbers of claimants claiming smaller individual losses.