By Kirstin Ridley
LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - U.S law firm Hausfeld plans to
battle Scott & Scott for a high-profile London class action
against major banks over alleged foreign exchange (forex)
rigging, a London court heard on Wednesday.
Hausfeld, which co-led a similar U.S. case against 15 banks
with compatriot Scott & Scott and helped secure $2.3 billion in
settlements for American claimants, has written to defendant
banks to say it plans to file its own, so-called collective
proceedings order (CPO) by the end of November, the court heard.
JPMorgan, Citigroup, Barclays, UBS
and RBS already face a potentially vast class
action since being fined more than 1 billion euros ($1.1
billion) by the European Commission in May over cartels dubbed
"Essex Express" and "Three Way Banana Split".
That lawsuit -- led by Michael O'Higgins, the former
chairman of British watchdog The Pensions Regulator and funded
by litigation finance group Therium -- was filed by Scott &
Scott in July.
"There is, waiting in the wings, an additional CPO
application in what U.S. lawyers call a 'carriage dispute'
regarding who acts as a representative for the class," judge
Marcus Smith told the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
"It's quite clear, if you have two opt-out CPO applications
in relation to the same subject matter, only one can prevail."
Citigroup, JPMorgan and UBS declined to comment. RBS and
Barclays were not immediately available to comment.
The Hausfeld letter was referred to at the first court
hearing in the O'Higgins case against the five banks over
allegations that forex cartels caused harm to pension funds,
asset managers, hedge funds and companies.
A spokeswoman for Hausfeld confirmed the firm was
considering filing a class action "relating to unlawful
manipulation of the foreign exchange spot market between 2007 to
2013". She was unable to comment further.
Some of the world's biggest investment banks have paid more
than a combined $11 billion in fines to settle U.S. and European
regulatory allegations that traders rigged foreign exchange
markets.
Foreign exchange is the crown jewel of London's financial
sector. With about 43% percent of the $6.6 trillion-per-day
forex market traded here, lawyers have jostled for position
since the Consumer Rights Act introduced the first "opt-out"
class actions for breaches of UK or EU competition law in 2015.
In such cases, UK-based members of a defined group will
automatically be bound into legal action unless they opt out,
while overseas-based claimants actively have to sign up.
If the O'Higgins case passes preliminary challenges, the
tribunal plans to decide on the class action application in
early 2021.
"We are encouraged that the judge has set out a timetable to
move things along," O'Higgins said.
($1 = 0.8995 euros)
(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Carolyn Cohn and Dale
Hudson)