The first effects of last week's Supreme Court’s ruling in the National Australia Bank case, which held that foreign investors who bought shares of National Australia Bank on an overseas stock exchange could not sue in a New York court, are beginning to appear in other cases. On Friday last week, Vivendi hailed the ruling, stating that it was was “totally in line with the position defended all along by the group in the American and French courts.” Vivendi is trying to exclude French shareholders from a U.S.-based class action lawsuit against it on whether it misled investors about its financial health.

Also on Friday, the FT reported that the NAB case may jeopardize a hedge fund lawsuit brought in the US against Porsche claiming more than $2 billion in damages. FT reports that 35 funds are accusing Porsche and its former executives of market manipulation and fraud during their four-year takeover attempt of VW. “The NAB case smelt of Australia, we question whether the Porsche case smelt of Germany,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, head of automotive research at Credit Suisse.

Today, however, plaintiffs' counsel from Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP offered a reminder that the NAB case should not completely bar European investors from suing for damages in the US. BLB&G partner Beata Gocyk-Farber told Investments & Pensions Europe that European investors can still join class action cases as long as their shares were bought inside the US. "If they bought so-called ADRs or ADSs on the US stock exchange, then yes, they should be able to benefit from the class action and actively participate in the class action," Gocyk-Farber said.