LitFin

Overview 

LitFin is the first market-mover in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the litigation finance area. Since its inception in 2018, LitFin has built a considerable market presence in the EU region and a sizeable case portfolio with a total estimated claim value well exceeding EUR 1bn. In it‘s beginnings, LitFin referred to itself as a pioneer of the litigation funding in the CEE, but within 3 years of its existence, LitFin rapidly expanded to the whole European market having clients from Bulgaria to the United Kingdom or France. Nowadays, LitFin is truly pan-European funder with the focus on CEE and DACH region and can be considered as one of the major players on the market.

Equally important is the fact that its clients and cooperating law firms consider LitFin a trusted business partner. On daily basis, LitFin cooperates with well-known and respected law firms and economic experts to provide its clients the best service that can be offered. LitFin is not only litigation funder, but in many cases also a strategic partner, who guides its clients through the process of litigation. In a nutshell, LitFin provides the ability to contribute to the elimination of the unequal access to justice and brings the opportunity to invest in an asset class with significant social impact.

The cooperation with LitFin is beneficial for all involved sides – claimants, their law firms and investors. The benefits for claimants are obvious on the first sight, in particular no legal costs, no financial risk of losing the claim and the professional administration of the claim. On the other side, the benefits for the law firms are just as important. By 3-sided cooperation between LitFin, client and its law firm, the law firm receives a guarantee that its fee will be paid properly and on time and access to new clients who puts the funding of their lawsuits in the hands of LitFin.

Main Areas of Practice 

LitFin’s natural focus is mainly towards financing so called “follow-on” cases based on the EU competition law infringements; hence LitFin has always been cooperating with clients from the most of the EU countries. Currently, LitFin is working on strengthening its clients’ portfolio in key group litigations as well as focusing more and more on the DACH, French and Benelux markets.

One of the most publicly known cases, where LitFin continues its efforts is Truck Cartel case where lots of clients showed their interest to join LitFin’s action in the Netherlands. In the aforementioned case LitFin currently finances lawsuits regarding tens of thousands of trucks from the whole Europe. LitFin also finances claims on behalf of over 2200 companies with regard to unlawfully charged German toll, as decided by the CJEU 28 October 2020 (C-321/19). On both cases LitFin cooperates with the biggest associations in the field of freight transport as well as with the expert law firms from particular countries.

While financing primarily group antitrust litigations, in Germany LitFin has established one of the main actions on behalf of retail investors against Wirecard AG and Ernst & Young Germany GmbH in the ‘Wirecard scandal case’. In this case, LitFin cooperates not only with big institutional investors but also with individuals who lost their investments due to the financial scandal of German fintech company.

Focusing more on the DACH region, LitFin is also active in two follow-on cases based on the decisions of Federal cartel office (Bundeskartellamt) in Germany. The first case concerns the Pesticides cartel that damaged mostly farmers who bought overpriced plant protective products and in which the participants to the cartel were fined in the amount of EUR 154.6 million. The other case concerns the existence of the cartel in the area of steel products and its participants were fined in the amount of EUR 646 million.

Last but not least, LitFin has supported large group of clients in the MasterCard and Visa case in Belgium in order to claim parts of the excessive fees set by these international card issuers. The lawsuit includes damaged retailers from several European countries including France, Belgium or Romania. In addition to follow-on actions and lawsuits in the area of competition, LitFin also provides financing of individual cases. The financed individual cases vary from commercial to medical disputes and forms minor yet important part of the portfolio.

Offices 

LitFin has its headquarters in Prague while supporting its clients also from branches in Rotterdam and Hamburg. The team consists of lawyers, experts in financial sector and other various areas regarding the nature of cases and is still growing as LitFin expands its portfolio of cases.