The European Regulation on animal transport (hereinafter called „Regulation“) should improve the protection of animals during transport. However, numerous barriers and issues hinder the enforcement of the Regulation and have resulted in hundreds of raised concerns over the last years. Since 2007, about 200 detailed reports from non-governmental organizations and numerous parliamentary complaints from Members of the European Parliament have been submitted to the European Commission, highlighting the poor implementation and enforcement of the Regulation and the consequential suffering and toll on animals that these oversights result in every day. Not only linguistic limitations are a paramount barrier to the effective and uniform enforcement of the Regulation, but also the disregard of many provisions of the Regulation has created a tendency towards impunity for transport organizations due to a failed infringement-sanction relationship of the Regulation. The enforcement of the law is principally characterized by the fact that violations can be sued if necessary. In all areas, this is possible for individuals under certain conditions. Animals, on the other hand, cannot assert their interests or sue for their rights in any situation. They cannot advocate for themselves when treated unjustly. One option to counteract this is introducing a class action for recognized animal welfare organizations, allowing them to stand up for animal rights, irrespective of any subjective legal involvement. This article deals with the possibility of introducing a class action to the animal transport law in Austria. The article covers some chapters of my dissertation („Analysis of the European and Austrian animal transport law– development of legal suggestions and proposals for improvement, University of Innsbruck, January 2020“).
