Volkswagen has asked the High Court to throw out a a landmark $125 million penalty over its emissions cheating scandal, the highest ever handed down in Australia for consumer law violations.
Volkswagen has lost its challenge to a landmark $125 million Dieselgate penalty handed down by a judge who lambasted a $75 million fine proposed by the ACCC as “manifestly inadequate”, in what ACCC chair Rod Sims told Lawyerly was a āturning pointā for the regulator to push for higher fines.
Logistics services provider Qube has resolved a lawsuit that accused the Port of Newcastle of misusing its power in the market for port services by denying Qube’s request to use its own equipment to provide dry bulk unloading services at the port.
Litigation funder Augusta Ventures has won its challenge to a landmark ruling that it pay $3.1 million in security for the costs of two Fair Work class actions it is financing on behalf of casual mine workers.
An appeals court has been urged to uphold a judge’s $125 million penalty against Volkswagen in the ACCC’s case over the car maker’s emissions cheating, with a court-appointed contradictor saying the judge was “starved” of the information he required to assess whether a $75 million agreement brokered by the consumer watchdog was reasonable.
The High Court has awarded $27 million in unpaid commissions to a Nigerian entrepreneur tricked into terminating his contract with international bank note manufacturer Securency, reversing a Full Court judgment which slashed his award.
Facing accusations of being a “litigation bounty hunter”, litigation funder Augusta Ventures has made its bid before the Full Federal Court to overturn a landmark ruling which put it on the hook for $3.1 million in security in two Fair Work class actions.
The settlement arrangement resolving five class actions against Volkswagen, which carved out hefty legal fees from the $120 million payout to drivers, could become more prevalent as the spotlight is once again trained on the cost of class actions. But the approach is not without controversy, experts say.
A court has granted a request from Grosvenor Litigation Services, the funder that backed two class actions against Volkswagen over its emissions cheating scandal, to suppress the details of a co-funding agreement with Vannin Capital.
A judge has found that the High Court’s landmark ruling last year blocking common fund orders in the early stages of a class action also barred them from being made at the conclusion of a proceeding, departing from several recent rulings on common fund orders.