This Wednesday, December 10, Professor Marco Giacalone, Research Professor and Co-Director of the Digitalisation and Access to Justice (DIKE) research group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, participated as a panelist in the Collective Redress and Digital Fairness Conference, held on 10–11 December 2025 at the University of Amsterdam (Roeterseilandcampus, De Brug).
The conference, organised by the University of Amsterdam with the support of the Stichting Onderzoek Collectieve Actie, brought together leading scholars and practitioners to examine the role of collective redress in promoting digital fairness, access to justice, and the effective enforcement of EU digital law. Over two days, the conference explored how collective private enforcement can address unlawful or unfair practices of large digital corporations, complement public enforcement, and ensure effective judicial protection in the digital economy.
The programme featured keynote speeches by Ignacio Cofone (University of Oxford), who addressed privacy and digital harms in collective redress, and Stefaan Voet (KU Leuven), who examined the challenges and opportunities of collective redress in a globalised digital economy.
Three thematic panels structured the discussions. Panel 1, devoted to the role and place of collective action, included contributions by Joana Moreira, Lena Hornkohl, Swee Leng Harris, Axel Halfmeier, and Valentina Golunova & Sarah Tas, and focused on democratic legitimacy, strategic litigation, and the functioning of collective actions in the EU digital single market.
Panel 2, addressing groups and representation, brought together Marina Federico, Marco Giacalone & Carlotta Manz, and Lyubomir Nikiforov, and examined collective protection of minors, vulnerable individuals, and algorithmic harms under the GDPR, the Representative Actions Directive, and the AI Act.
Panel 3, dedicated to remedies and redress, featured contributions by by Giorgio Afferni (University of Genoa) on collective redress for infringements of the Digital Markets Act; Francesca Episcopo, Anna van Duin & Aart Jonkers (University of Amsterdam) on collective redress for data harms under the GDPR; and Karl Wörle (University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna), together with Oskar Gstrein, Nynke Vellinga & Sophia Salziger (University of Groningen), on collective settlements and the digital space through a comparative analysis of the Austrian, German, and Dutch frameworks.
During Panel 2, Prof. Giacalone presented the paper “Equitable Digital Justice: Protecting Vulnerable Individuals Within the EU Regulatory Framework”, co-authored with Carlotta Manz. The paper explored the intersection between digital regulation, private law remedies and collective litigation, highlighting both the potential and the limits of existing EU frameworks in addressing structural inequalities and power imbalances in digital markets. The panel was chaired by Candida Leone, with Gianclaudio Malgieri as discussant, and generated an in-depth discussion on the role of collective redress in protecting vulnerable individuals and promoting fairness in the digital environment.
The conference concluded with reflections from the organising committee, reaffirming the importance of collective redress as a key instrument for enforcing digital rights and ensuring fairness in the evolving EU digital legal landscape.
Overall, the conference provided a timely and intellectually rigorous forum for advancing the debate on collective redress in the digital sphere, reinforcing its importance as a key instrument for safeguarding digital rights, ensuring access to justice, and promoting fairness in an increasingly data-driven and platform-based economy.