Upcoming events
Details of forthcoming events and activities will be announced shortly.
Past events
9 June 2026, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
Working Lunch: Liability Frameworks in the Life Sciences Sector and their Implications for the EU Single Market
On 9 June 2026, the European Justice Forum, EFPIA, and MedTech Europe organised a working lunch entitled “Liability Frameworks in the Life Sciences Sector and Their Implications for the EU Single Market”. The event was hosted by MEP Adam Jarubas, Chair of the SANT Committee of the European Parliament, and co-hosted by MEP Anna Zalewska (ECR) and MEP Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis (S&D). It brought together policymakers, industry representatives, legal experts, and other stakeholders to discuss the evolving liability landscape in the life sciences sector and its implications for innovation, competitiveness, and the EU Single Market.
Innovation in the life sciences sector operates within one of the most highly regulated and risk-sensitive areas of the European economy. Advances in biologics, vaccines, advanced therapies, and digital health technologies continue to transform patient care, while raising complex legal questions related to safety, defect assessment, causation, and the allocation of responsibility. Against this backdrop, the discussion focused on the reform of the EU Product Liability framework and the evolving debate on Third-Party Litigation Funding (TPLF), examining how these developments are reshaping the legal environment governing redress, risk allocation, and legal certainty for investment and research. Participants considered how measures designed to strengthen consumer and patient protection may also affect regulatory systems, market access, and the functioning of established approval mechanisms for products that have already undergone extensive conformity assessments.
The discussion also addressed the growing role of litigation funding mechanisms and their influence on how claims are initiated and pursued across jurisdictions. Participants exchanged views on issues of legal predictability, proportionality, transparency, and the balance between access to justice and maintaining a sustainable environment for innovation.
The meeting provided a platform for discussing how these parallel developments may affect competitiveness, investment certainty, and the broader functioning of the EU Single Market, particularly in a sector characterised by high regulatory standards, significant research and development investments, and continuous technological progress.
For further information about the event, please contact the Policy Manager, Seyide Direk, at s.direk@europeanjusticeforum.org.
8 June 2026, Avenue des Arts 6-9, 1210 Brussels (Saint-Joost-ten-Node), Belgium
Roundtable: Consumer Protection and Product Liability Challenges in the EU - lessons to be learned from the Nordics
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On 8 June 2026, the European Justice Forum, the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), and Danish Industry (DI) hosted a roundtable discussion on “Consumer Protection and Product Liability Challenges in the EU – Lessons to Be Learned from the Nordics”. The event brought together representatives of European institutions, industry stakeholders, legal experts, and policy specialists to discuss emerging challenges at the intersection of technology, liability, and access to justice.
Digital technologies and artificial intelligence are increasingly shaping consumer markets and industrial value chains across Europe. As AI-enabled and software-driven products become more prevalent, long-standing liability frameworks are being recalibrated to address new forms of risk, causation, and responsibility. Against this backdrop, the discussion focused on the EU’s revised Product Liability Directive (PLD) and the evolving policy debate on Third-Party Litigation Funding (TPLF), examining how these developments are redefining the legal environment in which innovation, consumer protection, and access to justice interact.
Drawing on Nordic experiences in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, participants explored how the modernisation of product liability rules is being transposed in highly digitalised and innovation-oriented economies. At the same time, the growing relevance of litigation funding mechanisms prompted discussion on legal predictability and transparency, as well as fairness and proportionality in litigation.
The meeting provided a platform for exchanging views on how the PLD and TPLF may influence claim initiation, enforcement strategies, and business exposure, including for SMEs operating across borders. Participants also considered how these developments interact with broader regulatory and policy frameworks and what lessons can be drawn from the Nordic approach to balancing innovation, consumer protection, and effective access to justice.
For further information about the event, please contact the Policy Manager, Seyide Direk, at s.direk@europeanjusticeforum.org.
21st January 2020, Berlin
EJF Roundtable on Digitalization, Ombudsmen and Health Care
On January 21st, the European Justice Forum (EJF) brought together different stakeholders to discuss the effects of digitalization in the process of dispute resolution in the health care sector. EJF presented a comprehensive process of dispute resolution ranging from detection/capturing to out-of-court settlement until in-court settlement and political challenges. The discussion with Ombudsmen, eHealth Startups and Business experts focused in a second step on core elements of learning culture and opportunities for process improvements in the out-of-court settlement through digitalization. As eHealth companies have learning from data and user friendliness in their "DNA" this allows mutual learning from and for modern dispute resolution mechanism as the ombudsmen. Besides the remaining challenges of high fragmentation in the health sector, the exchange built on the approach of learning from best practice. Examples of digitalization in private/administrative dispute resolution from different EU Member States had been presented, showing e.g. easy consumer access on websites for disputes, transparency of sectorial data, electronic consumer advice, automated and guided procedures as well as new learning opportunities for business. As further activity it was agreed to link into different associations in Berlin to further spread the opportunities of digitalization for fair and effective alternative dispute resolution including early prevention through data sharing.
The roundtable was kindly hosted by Johnson & Johnson at their Representative Office in Berlin.
EJF Members Meeting
19th of June 2019, Paris
The first Members’ meeting of 2019 was kindly hosted by August Debouzy in Paris and gathered more than 25 experts of EU politics and law. The meeting was the occasion to discuss the outcomes of the European elections in May 2019 and the changes of the political landscape at EU level.
Members got an update on the latest developments regarding the Directive on Representative Actions and current debates within the Council. Experts who are part of EJF’s legal network provided valuable insights regarding policy developments on collective redress in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy. In addition, the activities of EJF in the German health sector were highlighted. EJF is seeking to foster an open culture and better practices for dispute resolution in Germany through early detection of mistakes and improvement of feedback in the health sector, directly supporting EJF’s goals of fostering out-of-court settlements. Finally, law experts presented an overview on the state-of-play of product safety in France, opening up a broader discussion regarding the future of product liability legislation and how it could potentially be impacted by new technologies coming from an increased digitalization of our society.
The next Members’ meeting will be held on the 13th of November in London.
Can we regulate for innovation and can we innovate in regulation? What are the next steps for Better Regulation? The value of Ethical Business Regulation
13th of June 2019, Brussels
On last 13th of June, EJF had the pleasure of co-hosting the conference "Can we regulate for innovation and can we innovate in regulation?", alongside Fipra, MedTech Europe, ABHI and Business at OECD. The conference brought valuable insights thanks to high-level speakers who shared their knowledge and a number of good practices in front of a full room.
One of the main takeaways of the event was the acknowledgment that today’s world is not only characterized by globalization (through new platforms and increased trade), greater connectivity (IoT) and digitalization (big data, machine learning). But also by changing social values. These changes mean that the “new normal” is described by more volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. In these times of profound disruption, we need to invest more and urgently in new governance. The goal is to improve our ways of regulating and of implementing laws. Having a more opened and learning culture will play a crucial part in this process.
Andrus Ansip, Commissioner for Digital Single Market and Vice-President of the European Commission, gave his last address as Commissioner before taking on his new position as Member of the European Parliament. Commissioner Ansip shared his view on "Digitalization as a new challenge in regulation" and reminded of being cautious before adopting new regulation in order to preserve the ecosystem of innovation. This applies especially for small firms and startups which could be particularly impacted by new legislations.
Prof. Christopher Hodges, from the Oxford University, also gave a keynote speech on Ethical Business Regulation, where he explained that businesses must approach business practices with a new mindset. For example, he mentioned the formerly new practices pushed forward by airlines in creating a new culture of sharing information. Without overlooking their failures and findings that can be drown from them. Similarly, regulators need to adopt a new mindset to create a trusted space to exchange, deliberate and discuss for policymaking.
Ruth Steinholtz, founder of AretéWork, reminded the audience that innovation does not come without failure. She also emphasized that each organization has its own set of values, with its own priorities. It is thus important to have leaders fully committed to thoughtfully identified ethical values within their companies, to set a strong and positive example. Employees must also be involved and engaged to become ambassadors of their companies’ values. Ultimately, she explained that better business practices is about being responsible before being compliant.
Some ways forward to achieve better regulation:
- In general, emphasis should be first on root cause analysis and trying other means of avoiding mistakes, rather than rushing immediately into regulation;
- This means that regulation must be driven by better information based on observation and analysis;
- Implementation of regulations must be smarter to avoid re-opening an entire piece of legislation when only a few adjustments need to be made;
- Regulations comprising too many details are limiting the scope of freedom for innovation: more thoughts should be given to principles and harmonization of regulation.
- More flexibility can be achieved also via co-regulation or self-regulation;
- Companies must be able to set their own values and be faithful to them: this will increase trust between them, regulators and consumers.