While the financial crisis is a global, systemic event, the litigation generated is much more prevalent in the US than in Europe. The US is experiencing an unprecedented wave of class action lawsuits in relation to sub-prime mortgages, with more than 180 securities class actions launched against financial institutions since the start of the downturn. Europe remains generally spared by this phenomenon.
Complaints have of course been filed in Europe over recent months but, both in scale and in number, these lag far behind the US. Rather, it is in the US that several European financial institutions are facing claims for compensation from their shareholders, either European or American, in securities class actions.
Class actions launched in the US against European companies raise first of all the question of forum shopping. There is an incentive for European investors to file a complaint in the US against a European issuer just...