Matthew Darke

Class action settlements leaped in value last year, with three settlements topping the $200 million mark.

An Australian fashion designer has asked the High Court to overturn a Full Court win for singer Katy Perry in a long-running trade mark dispute, saying the court’s findings “wrongly privilege the powerful and famous over ordinary traders”.

A class action on behalf of 330,000 super members has settled against the trustees of the MLC Super fund, just days after another superannuation class action flopped.

Two High Court cases weighing key issues for class action practitioners will likely push the trial in a shareholder proceeding against the collapsed Blue Sky Alternative Investments and auditor EY to early 2026. 

The Full Court has overturned a finding that singer Katy Perry infringed an Australian fashion designer’s ‘Katie Perry’ mark, finding the designer knew of the pop star when she registered the mark.

A court has refused leave to appeal a permanent stay of a class action run, funded and led by lawyer Andrew Hamilton against Google and Meta that challenged their crypto ad bans.

A class action trial has heard that allegedly flammable Alucobond panels provided by 3A Composites and supplier Halifax Vogel are comparable to petrol and could present an “insurmountable challenge” to containing a fire.

Lendlease, which is facing claims by a former Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills partner over its alleged “aggressive taxation position”, has failed in its bid for orders that evidence of the partner’s alleged loss be filed before mediation.

A judge has rejected arguments that Virgin Australia waived legal professional privilege over advice from Herbert Smith Freehills by claiming in a class action defence that it had a reasonable belief that statements in a prospectus for a $324 million capital raising were not misleading.

Google has slammed Fortnite game maker Epic Games’ landmark competition case against it as “contrary to commercial reality”, saying its competition with rival tech giant Apple means it is no monopolist.