A judge has consolidated competing shareholder class actions against builder Lendlease brought by rival plaintiffs law firms, but has rejected the firms’ bid to jointly run the litigation and says one of them must go.
Certain claims in a shareholder class action against insolvent training company Vocation and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers have been dropped, as the long-running case awaits a new trial date pending the outcome of a separate Full Court appeal.
A class action accusing Westpac of issuing unsuitable home loans is pushing forward with overhauled pleadings after the corporate watchdog lost a related regulatory action, and the class now says it was enough that the bank failed to account for borrowers’ so-called essential expenses.
The funder backing a shareholder class action against Woolworths wants a 35 percent slice of any settlement or judgment in the $100 million case, according to its agreement with the applicants.
Cash Converters has agreed to pay $42.5 million to settle a class action brought on behalf of consumers that took out personal loans, after reaching a $16.4 million settlement last year in a class action over interest charged on short-term loans.
Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Colonial First State and former director Linda Elkins face a class action alleging the wealth management group breached its superannuation trustee duties by failing to promptly transfer $3.2 billion of default members’ funds to a lower-cost, high-performing MySuper product.
A judge is considering whether he can increase a record $75 million civil penalty settlement reached by Volkswagen and the ACCC over the dieselgate scandal, after saying the people of Australia would be “upset” if they knew about some of the “outrageous” terms to which the consumer watchdog had agreed.
ANZ has rejected allegations by the financial regulator that $35 million in fees charged to customers for periodical payments between accounts was unlawful, saying the regulator’s case extended the scope of false and misleading representation claims.
US asset management firm State Street has dropped its trade mark claims against a second superannuation fund over its iconic Fearless Girl statue, leaving law firm Maurice Blackburn as the lone defendant as a November trial date approaches.
Awaiting a Full Court ruling in a case involving similar claims of privilege against self-incrimination by partners at another accounting giant, the judge in a consolidated class action against PricewaterhouseCoopers over its auditing of the failed Vocation has vacated the February trial date.