README

VCRS

The Verified Claimant Register Standard: how a claimant register shows who stands behind a collective action.

Drafted by Steddle. Draft for consultation. Not legal advice. Read it at vcrs.org, where every section of the core has an address of its own.

What it is

A court asks the party that brings a collective action who supports it, and later who gets paid. VCRS sets how a register answers: every record graded by fixed rules, every sign-up flow and document traceable, coverage measured against a stated class size at a stated date, and an independent auditor who checks the count without trusting the operator. A jurisdiction-neutral core, and one annex per jurisdiction with what its law and courts require and what the standard asks beyond them, each item cited.

What it asks

Every record gets a grade, set by fixed rules from the facts on it:

Grade	A record is this grade when
D, not counted	Withdrawn, a duplicate, outside the class, anonymous, not told apart from a namesake, unconfirmed contact, joined through a flow that didn't say what the claim is, or without an opt-in made in time where the annex requires one
C, identified	A distinct, named person who confirmed a contact channel and joined through an informing flow
B, evidenced	C, and a document or an outside source places them in the class
A, corroborated	B, checked against an outside source, with identity verified through eIDAS or a scheme the annex names

The register as a whole claims one level, which sets what it keeps and how the auditor checks it: Registered (grade C or better counted, sample tracing by the auditor), Identified (grade C or better counted and grade B reported, full recomputation, regenerated before each hearing) or Verified (grade B or better counted and grade A reported, the reproduction test on the live system). The core holds the rules.

Apply it

Pick the annex and the level. The annex for the court's country; the level its section 7 recommends for your action.
Define the class and its size. The board approves a versioned class definition. State the denominator with its source, method and date.
Make the sign-up flow inform. Every version states the representative, the defendant, the claim and the period, and is captured when it goes live.
Grade every record. Export the facts (templates/records.csv for a spreadsheet, schema/export.schema.json for a system) and grade each record by section 4 of the core. The test vectors hold the grade each record must get.
Fix the snapshot, audit, publish. Anchor the snapshot's manifest (core 5.4), have the board's auditor check it, and publish the conformance statement, filled in as the example shows.

The self-assessment is the same list as questions for the board.

core.md: the core, the same in every jurisdiction
annexes/: one annex per jurisdiction, as markdown and as JSON, and the template a new one follows
schema/: the facts export, one record, and the conformance statement, in JSON Schema 2020-12
vectors/: records with the grade they must get, its reasons and the record's digest; any implementation in any language is checked against them
checklist/, templates/: for a board applying it by hand
The example register, fictional, its timestamp included: its records (records.csv) and facts (register.json), the same as one JSON export (export.json), its manifest (manifest.json), an inclusion proof that holds (proof.json) and one altered that does not (proof-altered.json), a draft statement (statement-draft.json), its conformance statement, and every outcome a check must give (expected.json)

Jurisdictions

	Regime	Annex
Austria	Verbandsklage auf Abhilfe, §§ 623 to 635 ZPO	Annex AT
Belgium	Action en réparation collective, Livre XVII CDE	Annex BE
Czech Republic	Hromadné řízení, zákon č. 179/2024 Sb.	Annex CZ
Finland	Ryhmäkanne, ryhmäkannelaki 444/2007	Annex FI
Germany	Verbandsklage under the VDuG	Annex DE
Ireland	Representative action, Act No. 22 of 2023	Annex IE
Italy	Azione di classe and azione rappresentativa	Annex IT
Netherlands	WAMCA, art. 3:305a BW	Annex NL
Poland	Postępowanie grupowe, ustawa z dnia 17 grudnia 2009 r.	Annex PL
Portugal	Ação popular, DL 114-A/2023	Annex PT

The core's residence rule (4.6) follows the Representative Actions Directive, so it holds in every member state.

Citing

'VCRS 0.1.0-beta.4, core and Annex NL, https://vcrs.org/v/0.1.0-beta.4'. A released version stays unchanged at its own address, as core section 13 sets out. The governance says how versions are released and how to comment.

Changelog

See the changelog.

Credits

Holly Thackwray, Steddle
Mischa Sigtermans, Steddle

License

CC BY 4.0. See the licence.

steddle / vcrs

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