Allens

ANZ has confirmed that senior executives could face consequences in an investigation led by Herbert Smith Freehills and Allens regarding concerns that it manipulated government bond sales last year. 

The ex-chair of former ANZ unit OnePath “has not been cooperating” in a class action alleging it breached its duties as a trustee of superannuation funds by slugging members with excessive fees to pay commissions to financial advisers, a court has heard. 

The number of new class actions so far this year has fallen short of recent years, and not a single shareholder proceeding has been lodged in 2024 to date, according to a new report.

Four insurers have argued that class actions over alleged business interruption losses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic should be de-classed, with one insurer saying group members cannot “go behind” a Full Court decision denying coverage for certain policyholders.

Although carefully reasoned, last week’s landmark judgment by the Full Federal Court finding power to grant contingency fees to class action solicitors has placed the question of statutory authority to award settlement common fund orders on more unsteady ground than before, experts say.

Google has slammed Fortnite game maker Epic Games’ landmark competition case against it as “contrary to commercial reality”, saying its competition with rival tech giant Apple means it is no monopolist.

In a landmark competition case, Apple has told the Federal Court that Epic Games and other developers should not be allowed to “freeride” on the resources and user base the tech giant has “spent many billions” to develop. 

Epic Games has taken aim at Google for the “untruthful evidence” of its witnesses in the game maker’s competition case against the tech giant, as well as its failure to call senior executives to the stand to defend itself. 

Video game maker Epic Games has attacked as “entirely contrived” the defence by Apple in closing submissions in a Federal Court trial of its landmark competition case, pointing to the tech giant’s lack of evidence, including from CEO Tim Cook.

Westpac subsidiary RAMS has flagged a cross-claim against disgruntled franchisees who say their agreements were terminated without proper cause, citing possible breaches of the National Credit Act.