Germany’s Wirecard bank scandal spilled into a Munich airport hangar in November with 100 lawyers representing 8,500 investors chasing €7 billion.
They are involved in just one of three parallel proceedings targeting EY auditors and former Wirecard directors after €1.9 billion mysteriously disappeared and the bank imploded into bankruptcy.
It is the latest example showing how class actions appear to be surging globally, fueled by cyber breaches, tech shifts, rising corporate accountability, and environmental disaster lawsuits like Brazil’s $47bn mega-claim against mining giant BHP in the U.K. High Court.
In 2023, 14 U.S. class action settlements crossed the $1 billion threshold in 2023, bringing the total to 24 billion-dollar settlements in just two years. The U.S. numbers echo the Big Tobacco payouts that represent the largest wealth transfers in American legal history, according to the 2024/2025 Class Action Review by Duane Morris.
Lawyers even now probe areas once considered deeply personal. Inito, a U.S. company that makes fertility tracking kits linked to a smartphone app, was hit with a class action last week accusing it of sharing medical data with advertisers, raising privacy concerns and fear in states where abortion is criminalised.
And yet it is not all champagne and settlements...
