International D & O

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vw2Several years ago, when investors’ representatives used class claims settlement procedures available under Netherlands law to reach securities claim settlements involving Royal Dutch Shell (about which refer here) and Converium (about which refer here), there was a great deal of speculation whether the Dutch procedures could become an important vehicle for aggrieved investors to recover damages for alleged securities law violations.

This speculation was particularly magnified after the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, in connection with the Converium settlement, held that the Dutch settlement procedures could be used to resolve securities claims of non-Dutch investors against a non-Dutch company, in the form of judgment that is enforceable throughout the EU and among other European countries. Though many of these kinds of investor settlements were anticipated, the onslaught of securities settlements using the Dutch procedures never really did materialize.

However, a new initiative being organized in The Netherlands on behalf of Volkswagen securities holders whose investment interests were harmed as a result of the automobile company’s emissions-related scandal may represent the most significant effort since the Converium case to try to use the Netherlands procedures on behalf of an aggrieved class of investors. This initiative on behalf of Volkswagen’s securityholders has a number of interesting features. It also raises a number of potentially complicated questions about jurisdiction, priority, potential preemption, and international comity.
Continue Reading Dutch Shareholder Foundation Seeks to Represent Global Class of VW Investors

can flag 2In the United States, securities class action lawsuit filings were at their highest level in years in 2015. The situation in Canada during 2015 was completely the opposite. According to a February 11, 2016 report from NERA Economic Consulting, securities class action lawsuit filings in Canada during 2015 were at their lowest levels since 2003. According to the report, which is entitled “Trends in Canadian Securities Class Actions: 2015,” and subtitled “Are We in Bear Territory?” (here), there were only four securities class action lawsuits filed in Canada in 2015, well below the levels seen in recent years and well below historical averages. Indeed, according to the report, case resolutions far outpaced new filings in 2015. NERA’s February 11, 2016 press release about the report can be found here.
Continue Reading NERA: Canadian Securities Class Action Filings in 2015 at Lowest Level in Years

spain1The filing of securities class action lawsuits is, of course, well-established in the United States, and in recent years has become a regular phenomenon in Australia and Canada as well. In the wake of various recent scandals, numerous group or mass investor actions, if not full-blown class actions, have been filed or will be filed in a number of other countries, including the U.K. (for example, in connection with the Tesco accounting scandal), Germany (in connection with the VW emissions scandal), Japan (in connection with the Toshiba scandal), Italy (in connection with the Saipem scandal), and possibly Brazil (in connection with various companies’ involvement in the Petrobras scandal).

Now it appears that investors in the troubled Spanish banking company Bankia have initiated a class action lawsuit against the company. According to news reports (here), counsel for 660 individual investors has filed an action in a Madrid court seeking to have the individuals compensated for their investment losses in connection with the company’s 2011 stock flotation. The investors collectively seek recovery of 6.3 million euros (about $7 million).
Continue Reading Spanish Class Action is the Latest Collective Investor Action Filed Outside U.S.

vwThe recent revelation that Volkswagen had been using a sophisticated software “defeat device” to rig the emissions performance of some of its diesel-engine base vehicles devastated the price of the company’s shares, leading to the filing of a securities class action lawsuit in the U.S. on behalf of purchasers of the company’s ADRs, as well the initiation of efforts to launch procedures in the Netherlands on behalf of VW shareholders who purchased the company’s shares through a Dutch bank or broker.

In my recent post discussing these VW-related securities litigation developments, I raised the question whether investors might also try to file a separate action against VW in Germany, under German law, on behalf of shareholders who purchased their VW shares in Germany. It now appears that a litigation funding firm’s effort to organize a German shareholder action is already underway.
Continue Reading Litigation Funding Firm Announces German Securities Action on Behalf of Volkswagen’s German Shareholders

uk flagIs collective action litigation in the U.K. about to get a significant boost? That is the question many are asking as the new collective action regime introduced by the Consumer Rights Act of 2015 goes into effect on October 1, 2015. The Act’s provisions facilitate collective proceedings for competition law breaches before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (the CAT), by granting the CAT the power to grant collective proceedings orders and to grant collective settlement orders. As discussed in a September 30, 2015 memo from the Allen & Overy law firm (here), these changes have raised concerns that the new regime will “lead to a surge of U.S.-style class actions in the U.K.”
Continue Reading A New U.K. Class Action Litigation Wave?

Burkhard (1)
Burkhard Fassbach
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Niklas Rahlmeyer

This blog’s primary focus is on developments in the directors’ and officers’ liability and insurance in the United States, but we do also try to cover important developments elsewhere. In the following guest post, Burkhard Fassbach, who is Of Counsel with the Dusseldorf based D&O-Specialist Law Firm Hendricks, and Niklas Rahlmeyer, who is an attorney in the corporate practice group of the Dusseldorf office of Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP provide their perspective on the German D&O insurance marketplace and discuss their views on the important insurance coverage issues there.

I would like to thank Burkhard and Niklas for their willingness to publish their article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Burkhard’s and Niklas’s guest post.

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The following post sheds light on some of the latest topics of D&O insurance that keep the German market busy. It depicts the concept of manager liability and D&O insurance in Germany, reprimands the German insurers’ practice of settling claims and outlines a catalogue of important issues the policyholder and insureds should keep a wary eye on when taking out D&O insurance coverage.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Marshall Plan for D&O Policies in Germany

Burkhardniklasrahlmeyer_ProfilePictureIn the following guest post, Dr. Burkhard Fassbach and Dr. Niklas Rahlmeyer imagine a possible shareholder presentation about D&O insurance at an annual meeting of shareholders in Germany.  Fassbach is an Of Counsel with the Dusseldorf based D&O-Specialist Law Firm Hendricks. Rahlmeyer is an attorney in the corporate practice group of the Dusseldorf office of…

areusAmong the more interesting recent securities litigation developments outside the United States was the announcement earlier this month that institutional investors had reached a 11 billion yen ($92 million) settlement of shareholder lawsuits they had filed in Japan against Olympus. Among the many interesting details about the settlement was the involvement of global securities litigation…

can flag 2A number of countries have procedural mechanisms allowing groups of aggrieved parties to pursue their legal claims in the form of a collective action. While no other country has a class action mechanism quite like that of the United States, another country that also has well-developed class action mechanisms is Canada. However, unlike the United…