Senior Managing Director Bradley Heys, Managing Director Robert Patton, and Consultant Jielei Mao have released their annual report reviewing securities class actions in Canada. “Trends in Canadian Securities Class Actions: 2023 Update” contains analysis based on NERA’s proprietary database of information on securities class actions in Canada. The report covers trends in the past year’s filings and considerations for 2024.

Highlights from the report include:

• Seven new securities class actions were filed in Canada during 2023, one fewer than the eight cases filed in 2022 and less than half of the 15 new cases filed in each of 2019 and 2020.
• All seven filings in 2023 are Statutory Secondary Market cases, six of which are shareholder class actions involving companies with shares listed on public stock exchanges.
• 2023 saw the first filing involving a company operating in the cannabis sector since 2020.
• Three of the seven new cases were filed only in Ontario, two cases were filed only in British Columbia, one case was filed in both Ontario and British Columbia, and one case was filed only in Alberta. No new cases were filed in Quebec for the second consecutive year. 
• Three of the seven 2023 finings in Canada had a parallel US action. No other Canadian-domiciled companies were named as defendants in US securities class actions filed during 2023.
• Eight Canadian securities class actions were settled during 2023, an increase over the three settlements in 2022 and the six settlements in 2021.
• The largest settlement in 2023 relates to the case involving Tahoe Resources Inc., which settled for US$33 million.

Further analysis can be found in NERA’s full report. Interested readers looking for more information or who have specific questions are invited to contact the authors directly.