Collective Action Litigation

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Class actions are of course much more a feature of the litigation scene in the U.S. than in the U.K, but things have been changing in recent years. The most significant initial change in direction toward collective actions in the U.K. was the adoption several years ago of “opt-out” actions in the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal proceedings. More recently, through its courts’ use of group litigation orders (GLOs), there has been a “surge in mass claims” in the U.K., according to a recent law memo. The result has been, according to the October 13, 2025, memo from the Skadden law firm, a “dramatic transformation” over the past decade in the U.K. of its “collective redress landscape.” The memo, which is entitled “Class Actions by the Backdoor? The Evolving Landscape of Group Litigation in the U.K,” can be found here.Continue Reading “Backdoor Class Actions”: Proliferating U.K. Collective Action Proceedings

A Dutch court has entered a significant ruling in one of the long-running efforts by Petrobras investors to recover damages following the company’s bribery scandal. The Petrobras U.S. securities class action lawsuit settled in 2018 for $3 billion. Investors who purchased their Petrobras shares outside the U.S. were not part of that settlement, and these investors have pursued claims elsewhere, including in the Netherlands, where an action filed by a Foundation acting on behalf of a group of investors is pending. In a ruling last week, the District Court of Rotterdam rejected the Foundation’s claims under Brazilian and Argentinian law. The Court also ruled on bondholders’ claims under Luxembourg and Dutch law, as discussed below. The court’s judgment is subject to appeal. Petrobras’s October 30, 2024, filing with the SEC on Form 6-K describing the court’s judgment can be found here.Continue Reading Court Rules on Petrobras Investors’ Claims in Dutch Collective Action

Lorena Kern
Katja Bullemer-Wülfert

The German Bundestag, or Federal Parliament, passed a reform of the Capital Markets Model Case Act (KapMuG) on June 13, 2024, and Germany’s Federal Council (Bundesrat) passed it on July 5, 2024. The reform is expected to take effect before the previous version expires on August 31, 2024. In the following guest post, Lorena Kern and Katja S. Bullemer-Wülfert of the DRRT law firm take a look at the reformed KapMuG and consider the possible implication of the reformed Act’s new provisions. A version of this article previously was published as a DRRT law firm client alert. I would like to thank Lorena and Katja for allowing me to publish their article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Lorena and Katja’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: “Class Actions” in Germany – KapMuG 2.0

The massive U.K. collective lawsuit against Mastercard will return to the Competition Appeal Tribunal for further proceedings as a result of the December 11, 2020 Judgement of the U.K. Supreme Court. The high-profile lawsuit is the first under the U.K.’s recently adopted opt-out collective action procedures for consumer protection claims. The case is also the first collective action proceeding to reach the U.K Supreme Court. The Court’s judgment sets out important guidelines and principles for collective action proceedings. The Court’s December 11, 2020 Judgment can be found here. A written summary of the Court’s Judgment can be found here, and a video summary of the Judgment delivered by Lord Michael Briggs can be found here.
Continue Reading U.K. Supreme Court Ruling Clears Way for Massive Opt-Out Collective Action Proceeding Against Mastercard

Third-party litigation funding has its critics and detractors (refer, for example, here and here). The fact is that third-party litigation funding is now well-established and is here to stay. A recent survey by one of the leading funding firms, discussed below, confirms that the acceptance and use of litigation funding is growing rapidly. The more interesting question at this point is — what are the implications?
Continue Reading Thinking About the Growth of Third-Party Litigation Financing