Kenny Henderson, Leah Gardner and Dr. Zsolt Okányi of CMS present key trends they have identified from studying the collective proceedings filed in Europe over the past five years, noting that, among other things, class actions in the technology sector are increasing dramatically, with 15 times the number of claims filed in 2020 as in 2017 (i.e. growth of 1400%) and data protection claims grew 11 times (i.e. by 1000%) between 2016 and 2020. Read more.
Kenny Henderson and Matt Peacock of CMS examine a recent case where the High Court left open the possibility that it may allow a funder’s commission to be paid before disbursement to the members of the class.
The “explosive growth” of litigation funding is behind an increase in class actions across Europe over the past two years, a report by the law firm CMS has argued. Kenny Henderson of CMS warns though that “as litigation funding expands, and in particular into class actions where the class members are often private individuals without independent legal advice, we are expecting increasing calls for formal statutory regulation.”
CMS has published its European Class Actions Report 2022. It notes that 2021 saw a record high for the number of collective proceeding order (CPO) applications filed in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in the UK. 85% were stand-alone claims – a marked change from 2016 to 2020 when the majority of claims filed were follow-on claims. Stand-alone claims are often seen as attractive for claimant law firms and funders in that regulatory scrutiny attracts attention from various potential claimants.
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