Three firms fighting for carriage of a $80 million class action against Star Entertainment say a group costs order would guard against ‘costs blowouts’ in the case and have urged a judge to ditch a no win, no fee proposal brought by fourth-to-file firm Shine Lawyers.
In a decade-old dispute, Viterra has lost an appeal of a judgment holding it liable to pay Cargill Australia $293 million for misrepresentations about the performance of its malt producer Joe White, which it sold to Cargill for $420 million in 2013.
Pet and livestock drug company Zoetis, which successfully defended a class action over its horse vaccine Equivac, is pressing forward with its claim against the legal team that ran the unfunded case, seeking to recover $500,000 of its $3.8 million legal bill.
A New South Wales developer will mount a challenge to a Full Court decision that tossed the ACCC’s competition case against NSW Ports over an agreement to privatise two ports, arguing the majority ruling was “plainly wrong”.
Telstra and TPG have lost their challenge to the ACCC’s decision refusing authorisation for a $1.8 billion regional network sharing agreement, with the Australian Competition Tribunal finding the deal would increase Telstra’s dominance in the mobile phone market.
A litigation funder whose cut of a $98 million settlement in franchise class actions against 7-Eleven was slashed in half is challenging a judge’s finding that “strong reasons” exist to refuse it a common fund order.
A judge has approved a $29 million settlement in a class action against Westpac over ‘junk’ consumer credit insurance, a deal that earns the bank’s customers at least $19.6 million.
Consumer goods giants Proctor & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser have been urged by a court not to bury their dispute over marketing of a dishwashing tablet product under a mountain of competing performance tests.
The Queensland government has signed off on ANZ’s proposed $4.9 billion merger with Suncorp’s banking arm, after the company agreed to remain headquartered in Brisbane as a dedicated insurance company.
Shine Lawyers has been ordered to hand over its costs agreement with the lead applicant in a class action over norovirus outbreaks on Carnival’s Sun Princess cruise ship, amid a likely plan by the cruise operator to seek security for costs in the no win, no fee class action.