On 8 and 9 December 2021, the appeal court heard an appeal against a 25 February 2021 ruling of the High Court in a case between multiple investment funds, including Allianz Global, who are suing several banks, including Barclays and UBS, for their involvement in the foreign-exchange cartel. We reported on this ruling in Q2021-1. In the challenged decision, the High Court granted the banks permission to argue that the alleged damage that Allianz global and others had suffered as a result of the cartel were passed-on to investors who cashed out assets at reduced value.

During the two-day trial hearing, the investment funds expanded on their earlier argument that only the investment funds, and not the individual investors, had a cause of action. Their lawyer said that the shareholder had not suffered a loss that the law regards as separate and distinct from the company’s loss and that it could not be converted into a “recoverable loss” through a shareholder’s redemption of shares.

The banks, on the other hand, reiterated the principle and rule of EU competition law that allows anyone to claim damages for breaches of competition law. They said that the impact on the funds and the investors arose from exactly the same illegal conduct and that the investors therefore had a cause of action, just as the investment funds had cause of action.

The court will issue a ruling on this issue at a later date.[1]

[1] According to Mlex, ‘Banks can argue funds’ forex cartel losses were passed on, UK court hears’, 9 December 2021.