As the economic impact of Covid-19 continues to develop, we can expect promoters of class actions to explore claims which arise from the pandemic – some of these will be in familiar territory, whilst other claim may be novel, say Herbert Smith Freehills’ Harry Edwards and Dylan O’Keefe.
Telstra has suffered a defeat in its lawsuit accusing competitor Singtel Optus of violating consumer laws with ads claiming it is “covering more of Australia than ever before”, with a judge calling Telstra’s allegations that the ads implied a comparison with other telcos “strained and fanciful”.
The Morrison Government will ease responsible lending laws requiring banks to verify information from credit-seeking consumers, after the corporate regulator’s failed “wagyu and shiraz” case attacking Westpac’s lending practices.
Nationwide News and journalist Miranda Devine have agreed to pay a “substantial” sum to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by nine-year old Quaden Bayles over Devine’s retweets of conspiracy theories suggesting a video of Bayles posted on social media following a bullying incident were fake.
The Federal Court has provided clarification as to how the Morrison government’s JobKeeper scheme operates, in a ruling against Qantas Airways that found the airline had incorrectly applied the scheme and underpaid its staff.
A judge has ordered the Victorian government to hand over legal documents it weighed before implementing its COVID-19 curfew, in a suit brought by a Liberal Party member that says the curfew was unlawful.
The need to properly prepare a large commercial class action is not reason enough to relieve lawyers of COVID-19 restrictions aimed at protecting the health and safety of Victorians, the Federal Court’s chief judge has said in explaining why he denied a bid by the Melbourne-based legal team behind the Crown Resorts class action to have the case declared a priority.
Pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim has failed in its Federal Court challenge to a patent application for an injectable anti-parasite drug for livestock by a subsidiary of competitor Merck Sharp & Dohme.
The Morrison government has announced significant reforms to insolvency laws as part of its economic recovery plan that take inspiration from US chapter 11 laws, but Australia’s peak legal body has said the timeframe for the changes and lack of consultation were “very concerning”.
A class action targeting security companies contracted by the Victorian government to guard returning travellers in hotel quarantine has been launched, bringing to three the number of group proceedings filed over the botched program.
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