Prosecutors are weighing criminal charges over alleged cartel conduct the subject of a price-fixing case by the ACCC against BlueScope Steel and former general manager of sales Jason Ellis, a judge has revealed in rejecting a bid by the competition watchdog to suppress details of its case.
The judge overseeing multiple class actions against Volkswagen over its dieselgate emissions scandal has said he will “need persuading” before reallocating the settlement approval to a different judge, because “that’s something that happens in Victoria”.
Boutique class action firm Bannister Law has been told “not to make too much noise” from its spot at “the back of the bus” in the VW dieselgate class actions, after its legal team flagged its intention to try and expedite the $127.1 million settlement approval process.
After four years of litigation, the Volkswagen diesel emissions class actions have reached an in-principle settlement of up to $127.1 million, with affected consumers expected to receive $1,400 per vehicle on average if 100 per cent participation is achieved.
Engineering services company CIMIC has won a challenge to the pleadings in a shareholder class action against it, with the Federal Court striking out deficient paragraphs but giving the class a chance to replead.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has failed in its challenge to a ruling that dismissed its bid-rigging case over mining exploration licences involving Cascade Coal and the sons of jailed Labor politician Eddie Obeid.
Engineering services firm CIMIC Group has attacked the pleadings in a shareholder class action against it, saying needlessly convoluted paragraphs containing a “numerically vast number of contingencies” should be struck out.
The barrister leading an appeal seeking to revive Quinn Emanuel’s fees for no service class action against AMP has criticised the approach taken in the landmark GetSwift ruling on competing class actions, saying it placed the court in the role of auctioneer and actually encouraged duplicative proceedings.
A shareholder class action against CIMIC Group will fight a strike out application it has slammed as an “opportunistic” late-stage move by the global engineering firm made only because the trial was previously vacated.
Japanese shipping company K-Line has been hit with a $34.5 million penalty for criminal cartel conduct, the largest consumer criminal fine in Australian history.