One of Australia’s leading class action law firms has joined forces with a top Australian litigation funder to mount on assault on the class action market in the UK and Europe, the Gazette can reveal.

One of the most significant entries to the nascent third-party funding market, Claims Funding International is a joint venture between Maurice Blackburn (MB) and IMF that will provide funding for class actions.

It is focusing on claims ­relating to cartel activity, shareholder grievances and illegal conduct affecting a large number of investors, such as false prospectuses.

The first case under consideration is an alleged ­international airfreight price-fixing cartel. MB is already running a class action on this in Australia.

CFI managing director Peter Koutsoukis, who was an MB partner prior to setting up the new venture – which is based in Dublin for tax reasons – said that although there were ­hurdles to operating in the UK which do not exist elsewhere in Europe, ‘I can’t imagine us not doing business in the UK’.

The hurdles include the cost of litigation in England and Wales, adverse costs orders and the lack of an ‘easy class action regime’.

Koutsoukis said the level of cartel behaviour in Europe ‘is just amazing’, and suggested it was encouraged by the absence of redress for consumers.

Later this month, the Civil Justice Council is to hold a third-party funding forum to discuss ways to encourage the market and the degree of regulation it may need. The work dovetails with its proposals on improving collective redress (see article CJC makes class actions call).