Class actions: Is Europe catching up with the US?

12.23 IPE Class Action Overview GM Solomon

Europe’s institutional investors are latching on to the rewards of joining class actions against investee companies. Many of these are securities lawsuits, pursued when a publicly listed company has not properly disclosed or has misrepresented significant information, affecting the share price when the truth emerges. But so far, the vast majority of these have been in the US. In 2022, nearly $4.9bn (€4.6bn) was recovered in the US courts, according to Institutional Shareholder Services. So, what about class actions in Europe? “The US has had a class action system for over a hundred years that can be adopted for almost every cause of action, whereas the UK has only had class actions since 2015 and it is only available for competition cases,” says Harry McGowan, partner in the securities litigation department at law firm Stewarts. 

This content is only available to IPE Members

Already an IPE Member? Sign in here

Unlock your IPE Membership Package

For unlimited access to IPE’s industry-leading market intelligence, comprising news, data and long-form content on European pensions and institutional investment.

What type of organisation do you work for?

Join now

  • Secure online payment
  • Free European delivery
  • Best value for price
 
access-denied-testimonial

IPE covers a good variety of very current and relevant topics. It is good to read the high-level, independent and objective perspectives from pension funds in other European countries; many of them are dealing with the same issues as we are, so it is interesting to learn from their experiences, especially when they are ahead of where we are on the curve.

Markus Schaen , Senior Fund Manager, MN,
The Netherlands