**IMPORTANT UPDATE**
The deadline to request to be excluded from the Settlement Class has been extended to April 20, 2018.
The information contained on this web page is only a
summary of information presented in more detail in the Notice of Proposed Class
Action Settlement, May 18, 2018 Fairness Hearing Thereon, And Settlement Class
Members’ Rights (the “Notice”), which you can access by clicking here. Since this website is just a summary, you
should review the Notice and Settlement Agreements for additional details.
Your Legal Rights Could Be Affected Whether
You Act Or Do Not Act. Please Read The Notice Carefully.
IF YOU TRANSACTED
IN EURIBOR PRODUCTS BETWEEN JUNE 1, 2005 THROUGH MARCH 31, 2011, INCLUSIVE, (THE
“CLASS PERIOD”), YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO
A PAYMENT FROM A CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT.
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IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES
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SUBMIT A PROOF OF
CLAIM
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Postmarked no later than August 1, 2018
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EXCLUDE YOURSELF
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Postmarked no later than April 20, 2018
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OBJECT TO THE
SETTLEMENT
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Served on Class Counsel and all counsel for
the Barclays Defendants, HSBC Defendants, and Deutsche Bank Defendants no
later than April 13, 2018 and
filed with the Court no later than April 13, 2018
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SETTLEMENT
HEARING
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May 18,
2018 at 2:00 p.m.
United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York, Courtroom 11D.
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Any change by the Court of the Plan of Allocation, the
time and place of the Final Approval Hearing, or any other matter and all
further orders or requirements by the Court will be posted on this website as
soon as practicable.
It is important that you refer to this website as no
other notice may be published of such changes.
What is this case
about?
Plaintiffs allege that, during the
Class Period, Defendants Barclays plc, Barclays Bank plc, Barclays Capital
Inc., Citigroup, Inc., Citibank, N.A., Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A. (f/k/a Coöperatieve
Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank
B.A.), Crédit Agricole
S.A., Crédit Agricole CIB,
Deutsche Bank AG, DB Group Services (UK) Ltd., HSBC Holdings plc, HSBC Bank
plc, ICAP plc, ICAP Europe Limited, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., JPMorgan Chase
Bank, N.A., The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Société Générale SA, and UBS AG (collectively, “Defendants”)
agreed, combined, and conspired to rig Euribor and
fix the prices of Euribor Products. Defendants
allegedly did so by using several means of manipulation. For example, panel
banks that made daily Euribor submissions to Thomson
Reuters allegedly falsely reported their costs of borrowing in order to
financially benefit their Euribor Products positions.
Defendants also requested that other Defendants make false Euribor
submissions on their behalf to benefit their Euribor
Products positions.
Plaintiffs
further allege that Defendants continuously conspired to fix the prices of Euribor Products in the over-the-counter market to
financially benefit their own Euribor Products
positions. In addition to coordinating Euribor
submissions and agreeing on where to price Euribor
Products, in order to effectuate their manipulations of Euribor
and Euribor Products during the Class Period,
Defendants engaged in “pushing cash,” transmitted false bids and offers, used
derivative traders as submitters, and rigged bids and offers for Euribor Products.
Plaintiffs
have asserted legal claims under various theories, including federal antitrust
law, the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”), the Racketeering Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), and common law.
Barclays,
HSBC, and Deutsche Bank have consistently and vigorously denied Plaintiffs’
allegations..
What are Euribor Products?
“Euribor Products”
means any and all interest rate swaps, forward rate agreements, futures,
options, structured products, and any other instrument or transaction related
in any way to Euribor, including but not limited to,
New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) London International Financial Futures and
Options Exchange (“LIFFE”) Euribor futures contracts
and options, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (“CME”) Euro currency futures
contracts and options, Euro currency forward agreements, Euribor-based
swaps, Euribor-based forward rate agreements, and/or
any other financial instruments that reference Euribor.
The Settlement Benefits
A. Settlements
with Barclays, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank
On behalf of the Settlement Class, Plaintiffs
entered into the Barclays Settlement Agreement with Barclays on October 7,
2015, the HSBC Settlement Agreement with HSBC on December 27, 2016, and the
Deutsche Bank Settlement Agreement with Deutsche Bank on May 10, 2017. The
description herein of the proposed Settlements is only a summary. This
description and this Notice are qualified in their entirety by the Barclays
Settlement Agreement, HSBC Settlement Agreement, and Deutsche Bank Settlement
Agreement, which are on file with the Court at the address indicated in this
Notice and are available by clicking the “Court Documents” link on the left.
1. Barclays’,
HSBC’s, and Deutsche Bank’s Payments for the Benefit of the Settlement Class
a. No Right to Reversion
The Settlement Agreements do not provide
Barclays, HSBC, or Deutsche Bank with a right of reversion. That is, no matter
how many Settlement Class Members fail to file a Proof of Claim and Release or
opt -out, if the Barclays Settlement, HSBC Settlement, and Deutsche Bank
Settlement are finally approved by the Court, none of the Barclays Settlement
monies, HSBC Settlement monies, or Deutsche Bank Settlement monies will revert
to Barclays, HSBC, or Deutsche Bank.
b. Barclays’, HSBC’s, and Deutsche Bank’s Potential Right To Termination
Section 37 of the Barclays Settlement
Agreement, Section 37 of the HSBC Settlement Agreement, and ParagraphSection
40 of the Deutsche Bank Settlement Agreement describe the Settling Defendants’
right to terminate the Settlement Agreements if certain events occur. With
respect to each such event, Barclays, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank have the right
(as qualified in the Settlement Agreements), but not the obligation, to
determine to exercise, in their sole discretion, their right to terminate if
the event occurs.
c. Proposed Plan of Allocation
The precise method of calculating the
distribution of the Net Settlement Funds in respect of the Class Members’
transactions will be determined in accordance with a Plan of Allocation which
will be formulated and proposed to the Court by Class Counsel. Class Counsel
will present the proposed Plan of Allocation to the Court for preliminary
approval. If preliminarily approved by the Court as being within the range of
what could be found to be fair and reasonable, then such proposed Plan of
Allocation will be posted on the Settlement Website. Settlement Class Members
are strongly encouraged to review the Settlement Website for any changes to the
proposed Plan of Allocation.
The Rights of Class Members
If you are a member
of the Class, you have the following options:
Submit a Proof of
Claim
As a Settlement
Class Member, you may be entitled to share in the Net Settlement Funds if you
submit a valid and timely Proof of Claim and Release demonstrating that you are
an Authorized Claimant as set forth in the Barclays Settlement Agreement, HSBC
Settlement Agreement, and Deutsche Bank Settlement Agreement. Proof of Claim
and Release forms must be postmarked to the Settlement Administrator (see
address in Section VIII below) no later than August 1, 2018. A copy of the
Proof of Claim can be found here.
An important aspect
of the Settlement is that the Defendants are not entitled to any reversion.
Thus, shares of Settlement Class Members who fail to file a Proof of Claim will
be redistributed to Settlement Class Members who do file Proofs of Claim and
who do qualify for payment as described in the Plan of Allocation. Settlement
Class Members are encouraged to file Proofs of Claim.
Exclude
yourself from the Settlement
To
exclude yourself from the Settlement Class for any of the Settlements, you must
submit a written request that clearly states (i) the
name, address, and telephone number of the Settlement Class Member; (ii) a list
of all trade names or business names that the Settlement Class Member requests
to be excluded; (iii) the name of the Action (“Sullivan et al. v. Barclays plc
et al., No. 13-cv-2811 (S.D.N.Y.) (PKC)”); (iv) a statement certifying such
person is a Settlement Class Member; (v) a description of the Euribor Products transactions entered into by the
Settlement Class Member that fall within the Settlement Class definition
(including, for each transaction, the identity of the broker, the date of the
transaction, the type (including direction) of the transaction, the
counterparty (if any), the exchange on which the transaction occurred (if any),
any transaction identification numbers, the rate, and the notional amount of
the transaction); and (vi) a statement that “I/we hereby request that I/we be
excluded from the Settlement Class in Sullivan et al. v. Barclays plc et al.,
No. 13-cv-2811 (S.D.N.Y.) (PKC).” All written requests must be signed by the
Settlement Class Member (or his, her or its legally authorized representative)
and notarized, even if the Settlement Class Member is represented by counsel.
Requests
for exclusion from the Settlement Class for the Settlement Agreements must be
sent by United States First-Class Mail (preferably Certified Mail) to the
Settlement Administrator (see address in Section VIII below). Requests for
exclusion must be postmarked no later
than April 20, 2018.
If you exclude yourself from the Settlement Class for the
Settlements, you will not be bound by the Settlements and can independently
pursue claims you may have against Barclays, HSBC, and/or Deutsche Bank at your
own expense. You may also enter an appearance through an attorney if you so
desire. However, if you exclude yourself from the Settlements, you will not be
eligible to share in the Net Settlement Funds. In addition, if you exclude
yourself from the Settlement Class, you will not be entitled to object to the
Settlements or to appear at the Settlement Hearing.
Object
to the Settlement
Any objections to the proposed Settlements, Plan of
Allocation, the application for attorneys’ fees and reimbursement of expenses or
any other matter must be served on Class Counsel and all Counsel for the Barclays, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank Defendants in accordance with
the instructions set forth in the Notice no later than April 13, 2018
and also must be filed with the Court no later than April 13, 2018.
The Court’s Settlement Hearing
The
Court has scheduled a Settlement Hearing for May 18, 2018 at 2 p.m.
to be held at the United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, New York, New
York, Courtroom 11D. At the Settlement Hearing, the
Court will determine, among other things, if the proposed Settlements are fair,
reasonable, and adequate. The Court will also consider Class Counsel’s request
for attorneys’ fees and reimbursement of litigation expenses, and the
Plaintiffs’ Incentive Award.
The time and date of the Settlement
Hearing may be continued from time to time without further notice and you are
advised to confirm the time and location if you wish to attend. As soon as
practicable after any change in the scheduled date and time, such change will
be posted to this website.
Further Information:
The information provided on this
website and in the Notice summarizes the proposed Settlements. For more details
regarding the Settlements, please reference the Settlement Agreements, and
other important documents filed in the case under the “Court Documents” link on
the left. You may also contact the
Settlement Administrator or Class Counsel for further information regarding the
Settlements:
Settlement
Administrator:
Euribor Settlement
c/o A.B. Data, Ltd.
PO
Box 173038
Milwaukee,
WI 53217
800-492-9154
info@Euriborsettlement.com
Lead Counsel:
Vincent Briganti
Lowey Dannenberg, P.C.
44 South Broadway, Suite
1100
White Plains, NY 10601
Christopher Lovell
Lovell Stewart Halebian
Jacobson LLP
61 Broadway – Suite 501
New York, NY 10006
Commodities
Brokers and other Nominees: Please visit the Institutional E-Filing page of
this website
If you have questions, you may call the Euribor Settlement Help Line at
800-492-9154, or email info@Euriborsettlement.com.