Institutional Shareholder Services Securities Class Action Services (“SCAS”) is pleased to release our report “Securities Litigation Comes of Age in EMEA,” which looks at the state of securities litigation in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

This report highlights some of the key differences between securities litigation in many jurisdictions in the region compared to the U.S. For example, we highlight the lack of a formal class action mechanism in many of these countries; the importance of litigation funding given the lack of contingency fees in many countries; and the much longer time frame between filing a claim and receiving any recovery.  

We also discussed ten notable settlements that we believe investors should be aware of. Some of these may be familiar from our Top 25 Non-North American Settlements reports, but others are cases where the recovery can only be estimated or are otherwise important to keep in mind. These settlements involve the following companies (and three of which settled for more than the equivalent of $1 billion):

1) Steinhoff International Ltd. /N.V. (Netherlands and South Africa)

2) The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (United Kingdom)

3) Ageas SA/NV/ Fortis SA/NV (Netherlands)

4) Postbank / Deutsche Bank (Germany)

5) Vivendi Universal SA (France)

6) Unilever NV (Netherlands)

7) Tesco plc (United Kingdom)

8) Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. / Shell Transport and Trading Co., PLC (Netherlands)

9) Hypo Real Estate Holding AG (Germany)

10) Makhteshim Agan Industries Ltd. (Israel)

Lastly, SCAS asked multiple practitioners in the field of securities litigation in EMEA to comment on important issues for investors to note. Four such firms agreed to provide commentary. The commentary was broad and highlighted several key topics, such as:

• The increasing fight over formalities at early stages of litigation across the region—meaning that investors need to pay attention to getting documentation right at case origination to prevent an early dismissal of their claims.
• The increasing maturity of securities litigation in the U.K. is exemplified by a number of recent court decisions on key issues.
• The requirements for demonstrating reliance across several key jurisdictions in the region.
• And some intricacies of litigation of claims by bondholders of certain banks and financial institutions.

Thank you to our commentators and the wider SCAS community for collaborating on a report that covers an important area of securities litigation in depth.  We hope you find this topic to be as absorbing as we do.  Click the link below to access the full report.