Companies and other defendants forked over big sums last year to settle more than 20 class actions, with a total of at least $734 million being paid out. Here are the top 10 class action settlements and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.
A judge has given his seal of approval to a $29 million settlement that resolves a class action over Radio Rentals’ Rent, Try, $1 Buy scheme alleging customers were kept in the dark about the true cost of their rentals.
Uber has failed to put the brakes on a massive class action alleging the ride-sharing giant engaged in a conspiracy to steal business from taxi and limousine drivers across four states.
Dam operators Seqwater and Sunwater have not ruled out appealing a judgment that found they, along with the state of Queensland, were negligent in the 2011 floods in the Southeast region of the state that left over 2,000 homes destroyed.
Engineering services company CIMIC has agreed to settle a long-running shareholder class action launched in the wake of media reports of an alleged $42 million bribe paid by the firm to win a lucrative oil contract.
A Federal Court judge has slapped Volkswagen with a record $125 million penalty over its emissions cheating scandal after expressing outrage at a “manifestly inadequate” $75 million settlement agreement reached with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
A judge overseeing a consolidated class action against four AMP subsidiaries and two trustees over allegedly excessive superannuation fees has ordered the respondents to coordinate after the lead applicants raised concerns about duplication of work.
The State of Queensland will not appeal a ruling that found it, as well as the operators of two Queensland dams, were negligent in the 2011 floods in the Southeast region of the state that left over 2,000 homes destroyed.
The judge overseeing the settlement approval process in multiple class actions against Volkswagen over the diesel emissions scandal has criticised an application for a common fund order by the funder backing two Bannister Law-led lawsuits.
The Federal Court has imposed a higher-end penalty of $270,000 on the CFMEU and three officers for site obstruction, saying the union has “significant resources” and has demonstrated a “willingness to contravene industrial laws in a serious way”.