Class action lawsuits are becoming increasingly popular in the UK, and a combination of the coronavirus, Brexit and previous claimant-favourable outcomes will mean UK companies see more action against them in the coming years...

According to Alan Watts, a partner at global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills (HFS), class action lawsuits first gained popularity in the UK after the financial crisis. The crisis encouraged the creation of claimant law firms, he said, which spend their time looking for cases to bring to court, opposed to cases to defend...

...Class actions have since grown in their abundance, with major firms like Amazon, Mastercard and Facebook each dealing with groups actions in the last year...

HSF partner Chris Bushell said mass-tort claims could compound an already growing market, generating more action in the sector as early as the next 12 months.

“If there’s an English holding company you can sue them here for some horrible event in another place,” he said. “Vedanta and Shell have said that in principal you can do that, so you can see a world where there might be a number of similar claims that are issued.”...

The rulings could mean parent companies headquartered in the UK, with subsidiaries – even third party subsidiaries – around the world, could be liable when something goes wrong on another continent....

Ahead of class action lawsuits becoming more popular in the coming years, HFS’s Watts said UK companies should be “mindful” of the risk of group actions.

“I think it’s one of those risks that they need to be mindful of, and they need to be more mindful depending upon where they operate,” he said. “Businesses make promises, and they need to be making sure they’re keeping those promises – and that’s not a bad thing...