BETTER FINANCE joins forces in collective redress for individual Airbus investors

P R E S S  R E L E A S E

BETTER FINANCE, The European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users, joins forces with Stichting Investor Loss Compensation (SILC), assisting Airbus shareholders to recover losses resulting from Airbus’ involvement in bribery practices and other wrongful conducts.

Largest-ever penalty on global bribery practices

On 31 January 2020, Airbus – the global supplier of aircraft, and Europe’s largest aerospace multinational – announced that it had reached a settlement with French, US and UK authorities. Airbus paid combined penalties of €3.6 billion to avoid prosecution over landing contracts via bribery to airline executives and government officials in 20 countries between 2004 and 2016. This represents the largest foreign bribery fine to date in Europe.

Damage to Airbus shareholders

The fines severely affected the company’s earnings and tarnished Airbus’ reputation. When this information became publicly known, the inflated price of Airbus shares fell sharply, causing large losses for investors. Airbus had failed to immediately inform investors of its unlawful conduct and to comply with legal disclosure obligations regarding its involvement in bribery practices and the significant reputational and financial risk it faced as a result.

Shareholder compensation

In May 2022, Airbus settled a class action lawsuit and compensated only shareholders who bought Airbus American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and foreign ordinary shares in the U.S. Shareholders who bought Airbus shares through European stock exchanges were left out.

Compensation for European shareholders

Today BETTER FINANCE announces that it joins forces with SILC, an independent foundation that assists shareholders in recovering investment losses and which currently represents institutional investors with more than EUR 300 million in losses against Airbus. On behalf of all who bought Airbus shares through European stock exchanges, SILC filed a collective action before the Court in The Netherlands against Airbus SE, and its responsible executives and auditors.

No upfront costs

This action is supported by experienced experts from SILC and Birkway, the Amsterdam-based law firm specialising in collective redress. It is powered by DRRT, an international law firm and market leader in global loss recovery with significant Dutch experience and Rightshare, a platform that connects individual shareholders to worldwide investment recovery opportunities. The costs of the action will be funded by Therium, a funder with a track record in the European market; there are no upfront costs for registered investors.

BETTER FINANCE and its member organisations call on all investors who bought and/or held Airbus shares between January 2014 and December 2020 on European stock exchanges to come forward and join the pending shareholder recovery action against Airbus by SILC.

Free registration is now open at www.airbusclaim.com