In re Vivendi Universal, S.A. Securities Litigation

Case Updates

Urging the Second Circuit to grant review of the district court’s certification order, NCLC argued that the issue whether foreign shareholders’ claims can be certified is an important one which should be resolved without delay. In this case, Vivendi Universal is being sued by a group of domestic and foreign shareholders for securities fraud under U.S. laws. Though it conceded that it could not be sure that any settlement or judgment of this action would be preclusive in the foreign shareholders’ home jurisdictions, the district court certified the class which included shareholders from England, France and the Netherlands. In its brief, NCLC argued that there should be a virtual certainty of preclusive effect before a class including foreign members should ever be certified.