Class Actions

A judge who ordered the first ever group costs order in a class action has found that the costs of the application should be borne by the class action.

A judge has criticised the Andrews government for withholding information about the alleged transmission of COVID-19 to a security guard working in hotel quarantine in a class action claiming lapses in the program caused Victorian businesses to suffer losses. 

Regenerative medicine company Mesoblast has been hit with a second class action for allegedly misleading shareholders about it Remestemcel-L treatment for COVID-19 complications.

Technicians bringing a class action against BSA have argued it should double its first settlement payment using money raised in its 2022 prospectus after the telco contractor filed an “urgent” bid to ringfence capital raisings from the $20 million payout.

The law firm behind Australia’s first privacy class action is investigating a recent breach which left the personal information of thousands of participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme exposed.

Telco contractor BSA has sued for declarations that cash raised from its 2022 prospectus cannot go towards a $20 million settlement reached with group members in a Shine Lawyers-led class action accusing the company of misclassifying its workforce of technicians as independent contractors.

Macquarie Leasing has been let off the hook in a class action alleging that a flex commissions scheme by ANZ’s former car finance business encouraged dealers to set car loan rates far in excess of base rates in exchange for large kickbacks.

Philips Electronics has been fined $133,200 for failing to provide timely notice to the country’s health regulator of deterioration in its sleep machines, after being hit with a class action lawsuit over degrading foam in the devices.

Online trading company CMC has been hit with a class action by investors seeking to recover 10 years’ worth of “significant” losses incurred while trading risky financial products on its mobile and web-based platforms.

Investors in Mayfair Group’s collapsed IPO Wealth Fund stand to recoup “a lot less” than their alleged $67 million in losses from a settlement in a class action alleging the fund’s trustee misled the unit holders — but they will take home 75 per cent of the resolution sum, a court has heard.