Council pension settlement secured from Under Armour

Under Armour is based in Baltimore

A court action which includes workers in three Scottish councils has successfully secured a $434m (£334m) settlement from US sportswear company Under Armour.

The North East Scotland Pension Fund (NESPF) administers a scheme for 78,000 workers including Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray council staff.

The fund invested millions of pounds in Under Armour stock, but later accused the firm of making false statements about its products. The BBC understands that more than £6m was lost from the joint council fund.

Lawyers acting for the pension fund secured the settlement, in June but it has now been approved by a court and the money will be distributed to plaintiffs. NESPF said it was awaiting more details of the decision.

A class action is a type of lawsuit where one plaintiff brings forward the claim on behalf of a larger group of people who have suffered a similar loss.

NESPF has been acting as the lead plaintiff in a class action against Under Armour.

The lawsuit was handled by the US firm Robbins Geller Rudman and Dowd LLP.

Mark Solomon, a partner in the firm and counsel to the NESPF, told BBC Scotland News: “We’re very pleased with the outcome. It was hard-fought. We had to go to the brink of trial.

“To get what is one of the top 50 outcomes ever in this sort of case in the USA is a very significant result.”

'No admission of guilt'

Under Armour is based in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1996 by former college football player Kevin Plank.

It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and has a market cap of $3bn (£2.3bn).

A statement on the company's website said it had consistently denied the accusations and had "entered into this agreement in principle, which is not an admission or finding of fault or wrongdoing, given the costs and risks inherent in litigation".

The statement confirms that the company will pay $434m to settle claims brought on behalf of purchasers of the company's publicly-traded shares from 16 September 2015 to 1 November 2019.

It says the settlement "would resolve all claims against Under Armour and other defendants in this matter".

In June, ahead of court approval, the company's chief legal officer and corporate secretary Mehri Shadman said: "We firmly believe that our sales practices, accounting practices and disclosures were appropriate, and deny any wrongdoing in this case."

NESPF told BBC Scotland News in a statement on Friday: "We are awaiting further details of the court decision."