S.Yu. Baranov, 

Candidate of Legal Sciences, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Environmental Law, 

Labor Law and Civil Procedure of the Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University 

The article is devoted to the analysis of legislative consolidation and application of the institute of group (class) actions in the Russian Federation. It is noted that the wording of the provision of article 225.10 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, concerning members of a single legal relationship, is failure to qualify a claim as a class action. This formulation brings a class action to a procedural complicity on the side of the plaintiff. Also a certain number of affiliated plaintiffs is necessary, but this should be viewed only as a guide, the «collectivity» of requirements, but not the formal legal criteria of qualification a claim as a class action. A very important issue of the use of class actions is the question of distribution of judicial expenses. In the English model of class actions judicial expenses are distributed, because it is possible to set a finite number of plaintiffs and defendants, in the American model – no. In our view, it is possible to adhere to the formal procedural point of view: there are a plaintiff and a defendant in a class-action lawsuit, therefore, between them distribution of costs is possible. 

Keywords: group (class) action; Concept of the Unified Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation; Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation; Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation; Code of Administrative Procedure of the Russian Federation.

Information about the author:

Baranov S.Yu. (Kazan) – Candidate of Legal Sciences, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Environmental Law, Labor Law and Civil Procedure of the Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University (420008, Kazan, Kremlin st., 18, 235 room; e-mail: dr.serjio@ yandex.ru).