Section 90 FSMA claims in the UK

Section 90A (and Schedule 10A) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) provide a potentially valuable right for shareholders to sue UK listed companies that publish misleading information to the market.  A number of s.90A FSMA claims have been brought in recent years on the back of, or parallel to, regulatory and/or criminal investigations into listed companies.  However, there are several challenges to succeeding in s.90A FSMA claims and most such claims have settled to date.  These include, for example, the claims brought by shareholders of Tesco PLC for losses allegedly suffered following Tesco's 2014 announcement that it had overstated its profits, which Tesco settled with the last remaining claimant group in September 2020. 

It is clear, however, that s.90A FSMA claims are increasingly a feature of UK litigation, and they can introduce a range of specific challenges where there are ongoing or concurrent criminal or regulatory proceedings.  In view of this trend, Chloe Morris and Ian Hammond have published a series of articles looking at s.90A FSMA claims in detail, which can be accessed here.

See our parallel proceedings microsite for further insight into the issues that arise when an incident leads to multiple legal proceedings and/or enforcement actions.