South Korea: Class Rep. Named in First-Ever Class Action

In South Korea, the nation’s first-ever class action lawsuit is moving forward.  Although the law enabling class action lawsuits took effect in January 2005, no such case had been filed until Seoul Invest did so in April 2009. On Wednesday, the Suwon District Court appointed Seoul Invest as the class representative in its class action filed against publicly traded Jinsung T.E.C. for losses allegedly caused by accounting fraud.

The Korea Times reports that the lawsuit will be

launched in the middle of next month when the court gives the final go-ahead — if more than 50 shareholders are confirmed to take part in the action. In Korea, a stock-related class action can be started only after a court approves it in order to prevent abuse of the system.

Most of the company’s 1,500 stockholders are reportedly likely to participate in the suit.

Read the Korea Times article