A Federal Court judge has vacated a hearing on liability in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s lawsuit against Sony alleging the entertainment company misled gamers who purchased faulty PlayStation games.
Judges have no power to order all class action members to pay a proportion of a litigation funder’s commission out of their share of a settlement, the High Court has ruled in a landmark judgment that deals a huge defeat to litigation funders.
The High Court is poised this week to issue its judgment in a case challenging the validity of common fund orders in class actions, a ruling that could see litigation funding commission rates creep back up after hitting record lows.
Arguing the court was wrong to rule that its trade mark was not inherently distinctive, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is challenging a judgment that revoked its 20-year-old mark for ‘Community Bank’.
The judge overseeing a class action against car maker Ford over its allegedly defective PowerShift transmission has shot down the applicant’s request for additional discovery, saying that after multiple delays in the case “the well has run dry”.
The Federal Government has conditionally approved a $1.5 billion acquisition of all shares in baby food and milk formula manufacturer Bellamy’s Australia by a Hong Kong-based dairy firm after finding the transaction was “not contrary to the national interest”.
The banks and executives at the centre of a landmark criminal cartel case can question four ACCC investigators and witnesses from JP Morgan at an upcoming committal hearing, with a magistrate saying Friday there were “substantial reasons in the interests of justice” to allow the cross-examination.
The judge overseeing seven class actions against some of the world’s largest car makers over defective Takata airbags has ordered that class closure take place in advance of mediation, saying it was “time…for commercial reality to bite”.
The Full Federal Court has handed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission a win in a high-stakes appeal over what constitutes personal advice under financial services laws, finding Westpac violated its duty to act in its customers best interests through a superannuation rollover campaign.
A groundbreaking class action ruling by the Federal Court on Thursday that found Myer misled shareholders and accepted the applicant’s market-based causation theory is the only judgment in an Australian securities class action since the first shareholder case was brought 20 years ago, and it might be the only one for years to come.