Investor losses: a comparative legal analysis of causation and assessment of damages in investor litigation

The thesis examines whether and to what extent investors can claim damages for losses incurred following breaches of specific investor protective rules contained in EU capital market law and concentrates on the difficulties and problems in assessing causation and loss. The focus particularly lies with those investor protective rules aimed at empowering investors to assess the variety of investment products and strategies and enabling them to make well-informed investment decisions, with or without the professional assistance of financial service providers. Analyzing the difficulties investors encounter to recover losses following misleading disclosures to the market, incomplete or inaccurate financial advice or improper asset management, it was established that the notions causation and recoverable loss lack consistency and coherence. Hence, the thesis seeks to formulate solutions to the evidential and/or conceptual problems investors encounter in seeking remedies for their alleged losses