New securities class actions filings in 2020 matched 2011’s all-time high, according to the latest annual report on Canadian securities class actions from NERA Economic Consulting’s Director Bradley A. Heys, Associate Director Robert Patton, and Senior Analyst Jielei Mao.

The report’s highlights include the following:

• Fifteen new securities class actions were filed in Canada during 2020, matching the all-time high of 15 cases filed in 2011.
• Four of the new cases in 2020 involve cannabis companies, adding to the five cannabis-related class actions filed in 2019.
• 2020 saw the largest-ever settlement of a Canada-US cross-border securities class action in the Valeant Pharmaceuticals case, in which defendants have agreed to pay more than CA$1.7 billion.
  
• Seven Canadian securities class actions were settled in 2020, three more than were settled in 2019 and one fewer than in 2018.

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.