The funder behind the recently resolved shareholder class action against teleco Vocus will ask a judge to make a common fund order at a hearing to approve a $35 million settlement of the case, the first common fund order since the High Court appeared to put the kibosh on them.
IT giant Hewlett-Packard Australia has been ordered to pay over $370,000 in unpaid commissions to a former sales executive after a court found the company could not change its incentives “arbitrarily, capriciously or unreasonably”.
A class action brought against 7-Eleven claims the convenience store chain ordered franchisees to purchase goods from supplier C-Store so that 7-Eleven could meet its obligation under a contract with the Metcash-owned supplier.
The international company behind the Vagisil feminine hygiene brand has lost its bid to stop a European competitor from registering Vagisan as a trade mark in Australia.
The company behind the ubiquitous bubble wrap has won a consumer case against Visy Packaging, with the Federal Court awarding almost $3 million in damages after finding a spoon-lid combination supplied to yoghurt maker Chobani breached an exclusive licence agreement.
A Sydney rabbi who told the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse that he did not know touching a child’s genitals was a crime has lost a defamation case against SBS and the Murdoch-owned Nationwide News, with the NSW Supreme Court finding that the media “accurately reported” the rabbi’s own words.
Westpac is now facing at least eight class actions in various US courts seeking $200 million from the bank for allegedly failing to alert shareholders to violations of anti-money laundering laws.
After failing to persuade the court at trial, shareholders in a class action against Myer have another chance to prove they suffered financial loss after the department store was found to have repeatedly neglected to correct an inflated profit forecast from former CEO Bernie Brookes five years ago.
A division of the CFMEU has criticised a court ruling barring members from industrial action against stevedoring giant DP World Australia Group, calling it an “alarming attack on democratic rights”.
A judge overseeing the first of what could be many shareholder class actions over Westpac’s anti-money laundering breaches — brought by class action specialists Phi Finney McDonald — has given other law firms a three-week deadline to notify the court if they plan to file competing proceedings.