Three Dutch pension funds have held off from joining a mass compensation claim against Philips over health problems linked to its devices to treat sleep apnoea.

The metal and technology sector fund PME said it had decided not to pursue a claim against the Eindhoven-based electronics giant, saying it would be a “lengthy process with no great chance of success”, the Financieele Dagblad reported.

The healthcare fund PFZW said it was “not currently involved in any claim”, while ABP, which manages the pensions of government and education employees, is also understood to have decided not to join a mass claim.

ABP, the Netherlands’ largest pension fund, sold its shares in Philips because of concerns about the company’s governance, as part of an ethically-based investment strategy that has also seen it divest its holdings in Tesla, Meta and Alphabet.

Philips has been at the centre of legal claims on both sides of the Atlantic after it started recalling 15 million Respironics devices and other machines used to treat sleep apnoea from April 2021.

The foam used to muffle the noise of the machines was found to degrade during cleaning and release fine particles that could get into patients’ airways, increasing their risk of cancer and other diseases.

The noise reducing foam used in the masks was found to degrade during cleaning and release fine particles that could get into patients’ airways, increasing their risk of cancer.

Last month more than 100 institutional investors wrote to Philips demanding a total of €800 million to compensate “significant losses to shareholders”.

The company’s share price has hovered around the €25 mark for the past four months, half its level of four years ago, though it has recovered from a low point of €12.50 in October 2022.

Philips has rejected claims that it withheld information about the risks from patients and shareholders. But in April 2024 it settled a lawsuit brought by patients in the United States for $1.1 billion, while the entire scandal is estimated to have cost the company some €5.2 billion so far.