A key economic question in securities litigation is how to determine the amount of harm that can be attributed to alleged misstatements and that may be considered as damages. Securities litigation and the legal frameworks around the determination of damages have been developing in different jurisdictions in Europe over the past ten years.
This white paper provides a brief overview of the classical approach to determining damages that is prevalent in many European jurisdictions; describes the alternative framework called ‘Fraud on the Market’ that has been commonly accepted in US courts; summarizes the evolving state of legal frameworks in some of the leading European jurisdictions; and explains the economics and practicalities of calculating inflation damages.
Associated People
Marc Van Audenrode
Dr. Van Audenrode is an expert in data analysis and econometrics, labor economics, antitrust and competition policy, and public economics. He has consulted to clients - including law firms and government agencies - in Canada, the US, and Europe. Dr. Van Audenrode’s work includes developing a methodology to value desktop software; he also developed expertise valuing goods as varied as restaurant franchises, executive stock options, or smartphone features. His recent work in public economics includes evaluating the economic rent from hydroelectricity to the Canadian economy and the value of logging rights on the ancestral territory of a Canadian First Nation. In the area of labor economics, his work has included filing an expert report assessing fair compensation for Quebec provincial judges and Quebec prosecutors and advising Quebec’s commission on pay equity. Dr. Van Audenrode has filed expert reports in courts in the US, Canada, Belgium, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, and has testified in Canada and the US. He recently filed a report with the Amsterdam Court of Appeal in support of the settlement reached between Ageas and claimant organizations in the Fortis case, the largest settlement ever reached through the Dutch Collective Settlement Act (WCAM). Dr. Van Audenrode’s scientific research and articles have been published in numerous peer-reviewed academic journals and trade journals. He is a coauthor of the book The Mutual Fund Industry: Competition and Investor Welfare, and is a frequent presenter at industry and academic conferences.
*Marc Van Audenrode srl
Chris Feige
Mr. Feige specializes in the areas of finance, securities, and financial markets. He has worked on and managed a range of securities and valuation projects in the UK and Europe. Mr. Feige has been appointed as expert in Dutch court to provide valuation and securities claims reports in support of Steinhoff’s global securities settlement, and gave evidence in the Dutch Enterprise Chamber regarding the valuation of Getir. He has also managed teams evaluating shareholder reliance and disclosure materiality and estimating counterfactual share prices in UK Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) Section 90A litigation matters. Mr. Feige has supported experts analyzing the volume of false and spam accounts on Twitter, Twitter’s information security infrastructure, Twitter’s data privacy and compliance with a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent decree, and share price and valuation issues on behalf of Twitter in Twitter v. Musk in which Elon Musk eventually purchased Twitter at his initial offer price. In cases involving alleged market manipulation in the foreign exchange (FX) and IBOR markets, he has analyzed trade data and evaluated alleged manipulation strategies. Mr. Feige worked on USA v. Richard Usher, et al., and the Foreign Exchange Class Antitrust Litigation, analyzing FX trade and chat data, as well as competition issues; preparing experts for testimony at trial; and providing data analyses and consulting support to counsel throughout the projects. He has also worked on a range of international arbitration cases, including valuation, damages, and competition analyses. In addition, he has developed complex valuation models, including discounted cash flow models, and analyzed asset-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, and other securitized products in support of expert testimony in a number of bankruptcy and damages matters. Mr. Feige has also worked on a number of international arbitrations valuing defaulted sovereign debt, expropriated oil fields, and retail operations. His work has been published in several industry journals.