Germany does not have class actions in the American sense. On the contrary, there has been a long tradition of opposition to the class action model at least since the 1980s, both in academic discourse and in the political arena. This opposition can be divided into three groups of arguments: first and most traditional, there are arguments based on alleged or perceived violations of constitutional law, in the sense that a class or group litigation would be incompatible with fundamental principles of the individual’s right to be heard in court.