Herbert Smith Freehills

The ACCC’s decision to block a $4.9 billion merger between ANZ and Suncorp has been set aside, with a tribunal finding the transaction will not substantially lessen competition in the home loans market or for agribusiness and SME clients in Queensland. 

Shareholders of New Zealand construction giant Fletcher Building have told a court that late claims in their class action over alleged misleading 2017 profit forecasts are not time barred because knowledge of the allegations was not discoverable before the case was filed.

Queensland power company Stanwell has flagged a possible ‘no case to answer’ submission in an upcoming competition class action trial that would seek to shut the case down mid-trial, with a judge saying it was “highly unlikely” to succeed. 

Group members in a shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard will get 34 per cent of a $23 million settlement if the court approves deductions sought by the funder and law firm that ran the case.

It’s a case of déjà vu in a class action against engineering services company Worley, with shareholders heading back to the appeals court after losing a second trial in their drawn out fight over disclosure breaches.

A shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard over a profit downgrade following its $300 million initial public offering in 2015 has settled for $23 million. 

Construction giant Boral has lost its bid to block a class action from running a ‘novel’ argument that shareholders suffered loss because of natural fluctuations in share price, rather than as a direct result of alleged continuous disclosure breaches. 

Defending allegations that its popular weed killer Roundup is carcinogenic, agrochemical giant Monsanto has accused the class action of having its “finger on the scales” when presenting scientific evidence to the court.

A class action against agrochemical giant Monsanto has told the court that there is “no safe level of exposure” to carcinogens allegedly present in the company’s popular weed killer Roundup. 

A judge has discontinued a class action by Victorian councils against insurer JLT Risk Solutions, but has departed from the decisions of two other judges by ruling the suspension of the time limit for bringing the councils’ claims will immediately be lifted.