Class actions and age-based discrimination: combating systemic discrimination and fostering the inclusion of elderly consumers
Type de matériel :
32
In France, the right to initiate a class action regarding discrimination and target age-based discrimination in the workplace and in the access to goods and services, i.e. in the contractual relations of seniors, has been possible only since 2016. The Défenseur des droits, an independent French institution that defends individual rights and promotes equality, had already identified a series of breaches in the access to goods and services: bank loans, rental cars, insurance policies... With the people concerned having failed to take legal action, a survey of the individuals involved demonstrates a combination of direct and indirect discrimination revealing systemic age-based discrimination. This study aims to shed light on the discrimination encountered by elderly consumers excluded from the contractual sphere regardless of their financial means. It also examines the benefits of class action proceedings both as a mechanism for detecting systemic discrimination preventing people from exercising their legal rights and as a catalyst of inclusion. A clear analysis of the discrimination encountered by elderly consumers is hindered by their limited awareness of such and the reduced visibility of those targeted. Age-based discrimination may take on a systemic character, using digital channels to permeate the whole of society. This is the case of algorithms used by credit institutions. Class action proceedings may be seen as a particularly relevant double-triggered mechanism. In the pre-litigation phase, a class action serves to detect and prevent discrimination. Judges are granted a new power to enjoin the offending party to put an end to its negligence. In the litigation phase, class actions rationalise the contentious issue of the discrimination and favour social inclusion by pooling the access of elderly consumers to legal action, represented by organisations and subject to the procedural limits of French law.
Réseaux sociaux