A judge overseeing the Montara oil spill class action has found the Federal Court’s broad discretion under the class action regime is “outflanked” by the need to give group members a chance to opt out. But resolving that question on Thursday — which has divided the courts — caused a further wrinkle ahead of a hearing to weigh a settlement in the case.
In one of the year’s biggest class action settlements, PTTEP Australasia has agreed to pay $192.5 million to settle a representative action over a 2009 oil spill that affected 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers.
Apple has foreshadowed a challenge in the event two law firms seek to work together on a consolidated class action that alleges both Apple and Google engaged in anti-competitive conduct in operating their app stores.
In a boost to shareholder class actions, the High Court has dismissed an application by engineering services firm Worley to appeal a finding that companies should disclose to the market forecasts that ought reasonably to have been held.
A judge has refused a bid by manufacturer Howden to use an expert report before IP Australia in a dispute accusing rival Minetek of misappropriating confidential information for an industrial fan patent, saying it was “wasteful” when a similar dispute was already before the court.
A former Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills partner wants the Full Court to decide whether whistleblower protections apply retrospectively in a $13 million suit alleging he was sacked for complaining about the tax avoidance strategy of construction giant Lendlease.
The High Court will take up Meta’s challenge to the privacy commissioner’s case over the Cambridge Analytica data breach, giving the court the chance to rule on the jurisdictional reach of Australian regulators in their pursuit of US tech giants.
Despite noting that a class action trial and appeal were “unusual”, a judge overseeing a long-running class action against Ford has refused an application to send a notice to group members about a coming appeal in the case.
Another law firm is planning competition class actions against Apple and Google over their app stores, just over a month after Phi Finney McDonald filed group proceedings against the tech giants, setting up a beauty parade that adds a wrinkle to similar cases brought by Epic Games.
Ford is seeking an extended hearing of its appeal from a class action judgment in favour of 185,000 vehicle owners over their allegedly defective cars, saying a “significant excavation” of the ruling is now in order.