This article (subscription req'd) entitled "Head of the Class" in the August 18, 2006 issue of TheDeal.com suggests that the long-standing aversion to securities class actions in Europe may soon become a thing of the past. According to the article,

"Within the past year, several European Union countries have either enacted laws or considered legislation that would pave the way for class actions. Last summer, a new Dutch law authorized associations representing injured parties to collectively negotiate settlements; in July, a group of French investors followed up with a class action in a Dutch court. The target: Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., or EADS, whose stock recently collapsed. In the past 12 months, Germany and Spain began to permit collective shareholder action under certain circumstances. In July, the center-left government of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi passed a decree explicitly authorizing class actions; if parliament does not approve the law by September, it will expire. France's center-right government is considering a similar statute."

The article states that this possible "change of heart" in Europe may be the product of a recent spate of scandals that have harmed European investors, including "the December 2003 insolvency of [Italian] dairy company Parmalat Finanziaria SpA, which collapsed with some 14 billion Euros ($18 billion) in debt, and the 2002 demise of canned food maker Cirio SpA, which defaulted with more than 1 billion Euros in outstanding obligations. More than 100,000 Italian investors held Cirio and Parmalat bonds."

These and many other international developments in securities class actions were the subject of a February 2006 ISS Corporate Governance Forum webcast entitled "Securities Class Action Litigation Moves Beyond US Borders," which featured attorneys representing eight countries. An archived version of that webcast is available here.