Vivendi shareholders outside the United States will get their day in court Tuesday, the opening move in a highly unusual collective action that could eventually see the awarding of more than €2 billion in damages for fraud.

Lawyers for 71 institutional shareholders are claiming to a Paris court that the management of Vivendi, the French conglomerate that owns Universal Music Group and Canal +, defrauded them by concealing a liquidity crisis in the early 2000s. Vivendi shares plummeted after the company revealed the true state of its finances.