Founded only four months ago, Crowdsuing has attracted widespread media attention in the Netherlands. Working together with various law firms and partner organizations, the start-up is currently working on its first cases. Though these are currently non-disclosed, it is clear that Crowdsuing wants to increase fairness and transparency on social issues such as privacy, food and human rights, by giving a voice to the people and citizen interest groups. Ronald says, “We became extremely frustrated by many things we read in the media – from Facebook exploiting private consumer data, to a multinational like Monsanto obtaining patents on broccoli.”
According to Ronald, the rationale behind Crowdsuing is three-fold. First, Crowdsuing wants to positively change behavior in big corporations and organizations that are overly fixated on short-term vision and profits. Second, current legislation does not always keep up with changes in society: “There are too many grey areas, leading to corporate wrongs against citizens.” Third, Crowdsuing shows people they have the power to bring about change, despite popular belief: “We want to add a new legal option for people to collectively act, going beyond petitions and TV shows like Radar and KASSA. We hope that together, we can bring about systematic and positive change.” Radar and KASSA are two Dutch consumer TV programs shedding light on societal and consumer injustices.
Ronald emphasizes that, while pushing for new or reformed legislation, it is not their intention to change the legal system. He says, “the current system took hundreds, thousands of years to develop. Its core essence is magnificent. The only problem is that many important issues never reach the courts. We make sure that these cases are tried and heard, offering an enabling platform to citizens. But we fully trust our legal system will do that which is just.”