FRT Wrapped: 2024 Highlights from the Shareholder Recovery Market
Join our upcoming live session on the top shareholder recovery trends and takeaways to know about in 2025.
Register > FRT Market Insider: 2025 Shareholder Recovery Trends
As 2024 draws to a close, we’d like to share some of the biggest milestones that shaped the class action recovery landscape this year.
Think of this as FRT’s version of Spotify “Wrapped”: a greatest-hits roundup of the trends, challenges, and insights worth remembering as institutional investors prepare for a busy year ahead.
1. Big Tech Took the Top Spot
Historically, the technology sector accounts for more securities class action activity than any other vertical in the United States. That trend continued in 2024, with 25% of 212 new class actions filed (as of Dec. 16) listing technology companies as defendants.
Looking at the top 10 securities class action settlements FRT tracked in the U.S. and Canada this year, several household Big Tech issuers also made the list.
| Case Name | Settlement Fund | Sector | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Apple | $490,000,000 | Technology |
| 2. | Under Armour | $434,000,000 | Apparel |
| 3. | Alibaba | $433,500,000 | Technology |
| 4. | Alphabet | $350,000,000 | Technology |
| 5. | Uber | $200,000,000 | Technology |
| 6. | TuSimple | $189,000,000 | Trucking |
| 7. | Perrigo | $97,000,000 | Pharmaceutical |
| T-8. | Earthlink | $85,000,000 | Technology |
| T-8. | Becton Dickinson | $85,000,000 | Medical Device |
| 10. | Qualcomm | $75,000,000 | Technology |
In addition, two of the three largest class actions that paid out to investors in 2024 were large technology companies. Dell Technologies ($1 billion) and Twitter ($809.5 million) are both among the top 25 disbursements FRT has ever remitted. In both cases, FRT’s clients recovered more than 22% of the total settlement funds available (net attorney’s fees and expenses).
Dive Deeper > The State of the Shareholder Recovery Market – A Special Update from FRT
2. Claim Scrutiny on Repeat
Between stricter oversight of SEC Fair Funds and standard securities class action claims, we can say confidently that settlement administrators binged on document audits in 2024.
According to FRT recovery data through Dec. 3, Fair Fund audits are up 125% year-over-year, while audits for all North American securities class actions have risen 42% compared to the prior year. On the non-U.S. side of the recovery spectrum, custodial confirmation documents remain a staple of the registration process in active jurisdictions.
We expect these trends to continue in 2025, making it critical to ensure your claims are optimized to survive the many gating mechanisms between filing and remittance.
The proverbial pain may still be worth the gain for investors, as total U.S. class action settlement dollars increased from the previous year by more than $750 million in 2024. Fair Fund recoveries were a key piece of the settlement spike, as the SEC established 10 new funds worth a combined $530+ million this year (both significant YoY increases).
Read more > SEC Fair Funds: Strategies for Solving 3 Key Recovery Challenges
3. Nexus: A Core Piece of the Playlist
Nexus is the required connection between a dispute and the court where the case is filed, which often limits recovery efforts to trades made on exchanges in the same country as the lawsuit.
Though not a new concept, it remains an important consideration for investors when there are multiple global suits involving the same underlying securities – as we saw happen with the European Government Bonds antitrust litigation this year. In fact, roughly 20% of U.S. shareholder class action target companies headquartered elsewhere, spanning dozens of jurisdictions across Europe and Asia.
Today, investors must appreciate the scope of each separate legal action, compare filing coverage with their trading activity, and craft thoughtful governance policies that can assist with complex participation decisions.
Read more > Building a Shareholder Litigation Governance Policy [Template]
4. A Couple of Crowd Favorites
We already mentioned the $1 billion disbursement involving Dell. That case, originally filed in Delaware’s Court of Chancery, came with a bonus for investors: no claim forms were required to participate in the recovery.
However, Delaware’s streamlined distribution process also creates operational hurdles that our team spent time discussing with investors this year. Our Client Portal helps investors track these “no claim” recovery opportunities.
Read more > Navigating Securities Class Action Payouts in Delaware’s Court of Chancery
Few global recovery topics have attracted more attention in recent years than litigation funding. Though these agreements can be dense and complex, their terms and waterfall payment structures can have very real effects on final recoveries for opt-in group litigation.
At minimum, investors should understand the difference between gross and net recovery payments. As prosecution costs rise, the variance between the two can be significant, resulting in a larger share of recoveries going to the case organizers than would otherwise be suggested by the funding agreement success fees.
Read more > Funding Agreements: The Devil is in the Details
That’s a Wrap – Join Us Live Next Month!
We have much more coming your way in 2025. For starters, you can join FRT’s in-house Legal team on Jan. 22, 2024, for a more in-depth discussion of the year’s most important trends, coupled with insights that our team is only sharing during this live session. Reserve your spot below.