The State of Global Shareholder Litigation: Where Investors Should Focus Efforts in 2025
Non-U.S. shareholder recoveries are evolving in two meaningful ways entering 2025, based on last year’s litigation activity. Both shed light on how the landscape is shifting and affect how institutional investors should approach recovery participation decisions this year.
The first is the growing number of countries with some level of shareholder litigation activity. FRT’s most updated governance policy template provides recommended loss thresholds for more than 30 jurisdictions spanning six continents, each with their own recovery mechanisms, laws, and participation risks that fiduciaries must consider.
At the same time, we are seeing organizer activity coalesce around a smaller subset of these jurisdictions – perhaps signaling that the global market is maturing to a degree.
These were among the insights FRT’s in-house legal team offered on our recent webinar, 2025 Shareholder Recovery Trends. Below, I’ll cover a few noteworthy takeaways from my analysis of the non-U.S. landscape.
Investors can access the full session recording here.
New Cases are Concentrated in Key Jurisdictions
More than 50% of global cases FRT tracked from 2020-24 were filed in Australia, the United Kingdom, or the Netherlands. Last year, new recovery opportunities converged even further around these three jurisdictions, which accounted for 72% of new non-U.S. filings.
A few factors help explain this apparent consolidation:
- Organizers have become more disciplined about where they deploy capital, avoiding jurisdictions with recent unfavorable rulings or standing challenges.
- Investors are more judicious about which cases they join, prioritizing recovery opportunities that are worth the risk and effort.
- More jurisdictions have “developed” legally through rulings and settlements, allowing investors and organizers to better anticipate which cases and jurisdictions typically present the strongest recovery profiles.
This is why we recommend creating a shareholder litigation governance policy that can steer participation decisions with appropriate risk and loss thresholds.
A Spotlight on Australia
Many jurisdictions take an active approach to group shareholder recovery, requiring interested claimants to affirmatively opt-in and join the litigation. Passive jurisdictions, such as Australia, more closely mirror U.S. class actions, where investors submit claim forms (or similar paperwork) without having to directly participate in a lawsuit.
Excluding the U.S. and Canada, Australian courts have produced the most consistent shareholder settlement activity in recent years. In 2024, for instance, we saw the G8 ($46.5 million) and RCR ($40 million) cases settle for large amounts relative to the issuer’s size. These recoveries often pay out at a higher pro rata percentage than U.S. class actions, too.
We expect Australian settlement activity to remain steady in 2025, even with last year’s dismissal of a high-profile class action against Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Class counsel have since filed an appeal challenging that decision.
Other Passive & Non-Standard Recovery Opportunities
The Netherlands should also remain an effective venue for group shareholder actions. The jurisdiction presents fewer risks than others in Europe and offers a more favorable path to recovery. For example, we expect to see more Dutch Collective Settlements, like the $1.6 billion Steinhoff settlement approved in 2022.
German acquisition cases are an emerging trend, with two such actions landing on our radar last year. Both are non-traditional cases arguing that investors who sold shares to an acquiring company should be entitled to the higher price paid to any other shareholder. The legal merits of these cases appear strong and easier to prove, since they do not involve allegations of fraud like a typical securities case, giving them a higher likelihood of successful recovery.
Lastly, we continue to highlight non-standard opportunities with low risks of participation, including the Credit Suisse appraisal case in Switzerland and other cases with a strong potential for success, such as the ongoing investor claims against Philips in the Netherlands. Registration remains open for both efforts
Shareholder Litigation Trends & Best Practices
The takeaways above give investors a clearer picture of where recoveries are trending in 2025, but they don’t tell the full story. FRT’s best practices and client recommendations go deeper, and we covered several of them on our recent webinar, including:
- How to evaluate litigation funding agreements and competing organizer efforts
- Which opt-in jurisdictions now warrant greater loss thresholds
- What we’re seeing in the North American securities and antitrust spaces
Related: Investors Recovered $7B in 2024: What Did We Learn? [On-Demand Webinar]