Seek recoveries of significant losses on EGB trading caused by cartel
Please contact us with any questions about the claim, potential eligibility or the process for participating.
What is this claim?
- The proposed claim is for investors that acquired or sold one or more European Government Bonds between 4 January 2007 and 28 November 2011.
- It seeks compensation for losses caused by cartel conduct in the primary and secondary European Government Bonds markets.
- The claim follows on from the European Commission’s decision of 20 May 2021, which found that seven banking groups had infringed EU competition law by participating in an illegal cartel in the European Government Bonds market.
- The proceedings are intended to be brought through the collective action procedure in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal.
- The underlying European Commission decision establishes (as a matter of law) the existence of the cartel and liability in the claim for compensation (subject to the outcome of ongoing appeals). The claim therefore only needs to establish that participants suffered loss caused by the cartel.
Who is behind the claim?
- Legal support from Hausfeld & Co LLP, a disputes-only law firm with market-leading experience in competition damages claims, collective proceedings and litigation involving financial markets. The Hausfeld team is led by Hausfeld Partners Simon Bishop and Tim Brown, supported by specialist competition counsel.
- Funded by TRGP Capital, a specialist litigation finance provider supporting high-value commercial claims. TGRP Capital provides the funding required to pursue the class action, covering the associated legal costs and financial risk, so eligible merchants can participate without having to fund the litigation themselves.
- Economic and market analysis from Alvarez & Marsal and Henry Strausser. Nils von Hinten-Reed and Thierry Wetzel of Alvarez & Marsal have developed the economic analysis supporting the proposed claim. Henry Strausser, a former bond trader and Head of Gilt-Edged Market Making at BNP Paribas, provides specialist market knowledge.
- Participation support from BB Merchant Services, which acts as an initial point of contact for prospective claimants and supports the collection of relevant trading information for review by the legal and expert teams.
FAQs
1. What do the claims relate to?
European Government Bonds, commonly referred to as EGBs, are euro-denominated debt securities issued by Eurozone Member States.
They are first offered to investors in the primary market, usually through an auction or similar issuance process. They can then be bought and sold between market participants in the secondary market.
The claims concern alleged losses suffered by investors because of cartel conduct affecting both markets.
The European Commission found that traders at several banks exchanged commercially sensitive information and coordinated aspects of their pricing and bond-trading activity. The conduct included discussions before primary-market auctions and the sharing of information about prices, volumes, customer activity and trading strategies.
The claim will be brought under Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement.
2. Who may be eligible to participate?
The proposed class includes investors that acquired or sold one or more relevant European Government Bonds between:
4 January 2007 and 28 November 2011.
Participation is not limited to investors that traded directly with one of the banks named in the European Commission decision. The expert analysis indicates that the alleged conduct may have affected bid-ask spreads across the wider EGB market.
Final eligibility will depend on the investor, the securities traded and the available transaction records.
The legal and expert teams can provide a list of the relevant ISIN codes to help prospective claimants identify potentially affected transactions.
3. Which banks were involved?
The European Commission decision was addressed to entities within seven banking groups:
- NatWest, formerly RBS
- UBS
- UniCredit
- Bank of America
- Nomura
- Natixis
- WestLB, now Portigon
The Commission found that traders from the banks maintained regular contact through multilateral Bloomberg chatrooms and other communication channels.
The precise defendant entities included in the proposed proceedings will be confirmed in the formal claim documents.
4. What did the European Commission find?
The European Commission concluded that the arrangements involved price coordination, exchanges of commercially sensitive information, market sharing and customer allocation.
The conduct related to the issuance, placement and trading of European Government Bonds. It covered activity in both the primary and secondary markets.
The Commission found that traders exchanged information before auctions conducted by Eurozone governments. They also discussed trading parameters, prices, volumes and customer activity in the secondary market.
The Commission imposed fines totalling approximately €371 million in its decision of 20 May 2021.
5. Has the banks’ liability already been established?
The proposed action is a follow-on competition claim based on the European Commission’s decision.
The General Court of the European Union largely confirmed the Commission’s findings in its judgment of 26 March 2025. It made limited changes concerning the duration of UniCredit’s participation and the calculation of certain fines.
Several banks subsequently appealed the General Court judgment to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Those appeals remain pending.
The claim will therefore rely on the Commission decision and the subsequent judgments, subject to the final outcome of the appeal process.
The proposed CAT proceedings will focus principally on causation and quantum. In practical terms, this means establishing whether the cartel caused losses to investors and calculating the amount that may be recoverable.
6. How is the cartel alleged to have caused investor losses?
The expert team has identified two possible mechanisms.
Market-wide widening of bid-ask spreads
The main alleged effect concerns the sharing of confidential market information between traders at the cartel banks.
Access to this information may have allowed those traders to identify more favourable transactions and avoid less profitable trades. Other market participants may then have faced an increased risk of trading against parties with better information.
This is known as adverse selection risk.
The expert analysis indicates that market participants responded to that risk by widening their bid-ask spreads. This may have produced wider spreads across the secondary EGB market, affecting investors whether they bought or sold bonds.
Manipulation of particular prices
The conduct may also have affected the mid-prices of certain EGBs, particularly before primary-market auctions.
This could have caused additional losses, or occasionally benefits, on individual transactions. The expert team presently expects this direct effect to be smaller than the wider effect on market spreads.
7. How much could the claim be worth?
The value of each claim will depend on matters including:
- The number and value of relevant EGB transactions.
- The dates on which the bonds were bought or sold.
- The specific securities involved.
- The available trading records.
- The final economic methodology accepted by the Tribunal.
Alvarez & Marsal has conducted a preliminary regression analysis using data from MTS, a major interdealer market for euro-denominated sovereign bonds.
The preliminary analysis estimates that the cartel caused average bid-ask spreads to increase by approximately 27% to 36% during the relevant period. This represents an estimated widening of approximately 3.81 to 5.09 basis points.
As investors generally incurred half of the bid-ask spread on each transaction, the preliminary model estimates an average alleged overcharge of approximately 1.91 to 2.55 basis points on each relevant purchase or sale.
These figures are preliminary expert estimates. They are not a guarantee of the amount that any investor will recover.
8. Can a prospective claimant receive a preliminary loss estimate?
Yes.
A preliminary loss estimate can be prepared without cost or obligation, subject to the availability and suitability of the investor’s trading information.
The legal and expert teams will explain which records are required and provide a list of the potentially affected securities and ISIN codes.
Relevant information is likely to include:
- Transaction dates.
- ISIN codes.
- Purchase or sale indicators.
- Nominal transaction values.
- Transaction prices.
- Trading entities or accounts.
- Available broker, custodian or internal trading records.
Incomplete records do not necessarily prevent an initial assessment. Prospective claimants should explain what data remains available so that the expert team can consider whether other records can be used.
9. How much will bringing the claim cost?
Hausfeld proposes to act under a Damages-Based Agreement.
There are no upfront legal fees. If the claim succeeds through a settlement or damages judgment, the fee will be:
30% of the gross damages recovered, plus VAT where applicable.
The fee will be reduced by the claimant’s share of any amount recovered from the defendants in respect of solicitors’ and barristers’ fees.
VAT is generally expected to apply where a claimant is domiciled in the UK. The precise VAT treatment will depend on the claimant’s circumstances.
There is no separate litigation-funding commission charged against the damages.
The full terms will be set out in the participation documents and should be reviewed before a claimant decides whether to join.
10. What happens if the claim is unsuccessful?
If the claim is unsuccessful, class members will pay no legal fee to Hausfeld under the proposed Damages-Based Agreement.
The class representative will bear the adverse costs risk associated with the collective proceedings. Insurance provided by A-rated insurers is intended to protect the class representative against an adverse costs award.
Class members will therefore not bear the defendants’ legal costs under the proposed structure.
The arrangements concerning legal costs, expenses and insurance will be explained fully in the participation pack.
Class members may still need to dedicate some internal time to locating trading records, reviewing documents and responding to reasonable information requests.
11. Who will conduct the claim?
Hausfeld will conduct the proposed legal proceedings, working with specialist barristers and economic experts.
The core Hausfeld team includes:
Simon Bishop, Partner
Simon Bishop specialises in competition and commercial litigation, with a focus on disputes involving financial services. His experience includes securities trading, market manipulation, financial benchmarks, derivatives and competition-law infringements.
Tim Brown, Partner
Tim Brown specialises in UK and EU competition litigation. His work includes individual claims, group actions and collective proceedings in the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Colin West KC, Counsel
Colin West KC practises in competition and commercial law. His work includes cartel damages claims and disputes involving financial services.
The expert team includes:
Nils von Hinten-Reed, Alvarez & Marsal
Nils von Hinten-Reed specialises in competition economics, commercial damages and economic evidence in litigation and arbitration.
Thierry Wetzel, Alvarez & Marsal
Thierry Wetzel specialises in the application of economics to competition investigations and collective claims.
Henry Strausser, Market Expert
Henry Strausser traded bonds between 2004 and 2014 and was Head of Gilt-Edged Market Making at BNP Paribas during the relevant period. He now advises on trading transparency and the identification of potential market abuse.
12. Where will the claim be brought?
The proposed claim will be brought in the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London.
The CAT is the UK’s specialist court for competition-law cases. It has a collective proceedings procedure through which a class representative can bring a claim on behalf of a defined group of investors.
The proposed claim will require the CAT to approve the case for collective proceedings through a process known as certification.
The CAT will assess the claim at an early stage and actively manage the proceedings if certification is granted.
13. Will participating investors become active litigants?
No. The class representative, rather than each participating investor, will act as the claimant in the proceedings.
Class members will not ordinarily be active litigants. This is intended to reduce the time and management burden placed on participating organisations.
Class members may still need to:
- Provide relevant trading information.
- Review the client briefing memorandum.
- Review the Alvarez & Marsal quantum report.
- Review and complete the EGB participation documents.
- Respond to reasonable requests from the legal or expert teams.
- Consider significant decisions affecting the class.
The precise level of involvement will depend on the progress of the proceedings and any directions made by the CAT.
14. Will participation become public or affect banking relationships?
The class representative will maintain a register of the investors that opt into the proposed proceedings.
That register is not generally expected to be publicly available unless the CAT orders otherwise. The collective proceedings structure therefore provides greater anonymity than a conventional individual High Court claim.
Class members will not be named as the active claimant. This may help participating investors preserve their ongoing commercial relationships with the defendant banks.
No absolute assurance can be given about commercial consequences. Each prospective claimant should consider its own relationships and discuss any particular concerns with the legal team before joining.
15. When will the proceedings begin and what happens next?
The present materials do not state a final filing date or opt-in deadline. The legal team will confirm the claim timetable and any participation deadline before prospective claimants are asked to make a binding decision.
Registering non-binding interest does not commit an investor to joining the proceedings.
The proposed next steps are:
Review
Prospective claimants will be provided with the client briefing memorandum, the Alvarez & Marsal quantum report and the EGB participation pack.
Provide information
The investor will provide available trading data so that the expert team can assess eligibility and prepare a preliminary loss estimate.
Confirm participation
Once the legal, economic and commercial terms have been considered, the investor can confirm whether it intends to participate in the proposed claim.
No outcome date can be guaranteed. Collective competition proceedings can take time and may conclude through a judgment, settlement or another form of resolution.