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Cartel Key

Cartel Key

- The EU estimates 2-3bn of losses per year to businesses and consumers from illegal cartels.

- You have a right to be compensated for losses caused by illegal cartel activities.

- We have developed Cartel Key to unlock your cartel claim with minimal risk.

Hausfeld & Co.
- We are a leading international claimant-only competition law firm.  We have over 25 lawyers in our competition litigation team including 4 in our European office in London.  International collective competition claims are the core of our firm's practice.

FirstAssist
- FirstAssist Legal Protection is on of the UK's leading providers of Before and After the Event legal expenses insurance ("BTE" and "ATE").

Products include Pursuit, the most innotative ATE product available to support Conditional Fee Agreements ("CFAs").

Our market-leading Cartel Key - access to cartel compensation in the English Court at minimal risk

We can offer you our Cartel Key to recover cartel compensation in the UK.  It makes proceeding for compensation for your losses virtually risk free.

How does our Cartel Key work?

1. We focus on cartel cases where a competition authority or court has already found the cartelists to be liable (or even guilty under criminal law) or is highly likely to do so.

2. We use this decision as the basis for "follow on" collective claims by groups of victims in national courts in the EU: these courts must apply the decision and find the cartelists to whom the decision applies liable.

3. We work with expert economists and forensic accountants to establish that the cartelists' illegal behaviour caused quantifiable losses to you, their victims: a recognised general estimate is that victims pay at least 10% more to cartelists than if there had been no cartel  - the "cartel overcharge."

4. Our group of clients commits to stand and fight together to maximise recovery for all on settlement or by a judgment of the court.

5. We have jointly developed a unique package to minimize as far as possible the financial risks of seeking compensation: very substantial ATE insurance from FirstAssist plus the provision of our legal services on a "success only" fee basis under well established English law rules.  We will only be paid if we win your case: our fee is recoverable on success from the defendants.  And the insurance premium is only payable at the end of the case, and then only if it succeeds, when it is also recovered from the defendants.  The level and scope of the insurance cover reflects the insurer's view of the strength of the case and the fact that we are prepared to work on a full CFA basis.

6. Broadly speaking, the greater the costs incurred by the defendants the higher the insurance premium they will pay (in addition to their own costs and our legal fees and disbursements) if the action succeeds.

Hausfeld & Co. and FirstAssist will together assess each cartel to agree on the terms of the insurance - we will only advise you to proceed with a claim which we think has very good prospects of success and where we believe that the insurance in place is sufficient to cover the risks that we reasonably think may arise in bringing the claim on your behalf.

However, claiming compensation in the courts can be unpredictable and, despite our best efforts, insurance limits may be at risk of being exceeded, meaning that "top up" protection is required.  We have extensive contacts within the litigation insurance sector who are willing to provide top up cover in such circumstances.  We also have good contacts in the "litigation funding" market - where risk is taken by a funder in return for a proportion of the recovery - should wider risk cover be required.  Where we cannot negotiate a "success only" fee structure with experts, accountants and barristers, there is also a small risk that not all of their fees will be recoverable from the defendants or insurer.

Practice Areas: Antitrust / Competition