Class action settlements hit major milestones last year, with the year’s largest settlements totalling more than $1.5 billion and one case resolving for a historic $548.5 million.
Reforms to Australia’s merger review regime kicked in on 1 January, but late-breaking amendments to the new laws mean changes to notification thresholds and further exemptions.
A judge has ordered Australian Unity to pay a $7.1 million penalty in ASIC proceedings alleging it pumped more than $9.5 million into a risky mortgage scheme without properly vetting investors.
A judge has allowed a shareholder class action over the collapse of asset manager Blue Sky to bring insider trading claims against several short sellers, as well as brokers Credit Suisse and Argonaut Securities.
A group of insurers can’t join Northwest Rail Link joint venture partners MTR and UGL to a suit by CPB Contractors and John Holland over a $100 million policy, with a judge saying the joint venture’s interests in the case are commercial rather than legal.
The liquidators of Falcon Capital, which is suspected of having misused $450 million in investor funds, have sued a Melbourne property developer, claiming he knowingly assisted Falcon to loan millions in trust money in a “dishonest and fraudulent design”.
The liquidators of a defunct developer FSM have lost their bid to access unredacted copies of emails between Ray White Capital and King & Wood Mallesons.
Northwest Rail Link builders CPB Contractors and John Holland are pushing back against a bid by several insurers to join joint venture partners MTR and UGL to a coverage spat over a $100 million policy.
AMP has agreed to pay $29 million to settle a class action alleging insurance customers were overcharged, putting to rest another case stemming from “serious misconduct” that came to light curing the 2018 banking royal commission.
A developer has failed to revive its $400 million lawsuit against an investor over a development at the site of the former Pentridge Prison in Victoria, with an appeals court agreeing the case was properly dismissed.