The Federal Court of Australia has imposed a $10.5m (AUD) penalty on an Australian superannuation fund, in the latest of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's greenwashing cases to reach the penalty hearing...more
On 13 February 2025, the Australian Federal Parliament passed the Scams Prevention Bill 2025 (Cth) ("Bill"), the first of its kind worldwide....more
The first wave of Australia's expansive privacy law reforms has been introduced into Federal Parliament in the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (Cth) ("Bill")....more
10/29/2024
/ Australia ,
Cybersecurity ,
Damages ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform
The Australian federal government recently released its response to the independent review of Australia's amended continuous disclosure regime (the "Independent Review")....more
Australia has now officially passed laws that will introduce a mandatory climate-related financial disclosure regime from 1 January 2025. This is one of the most significant reforms to corporate financial reporting in...more
The Development: Recently, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ("ACCC") published draft guidelines designed to assist businesses to understand how they can collaborate on sustainability initiatives without...more
Australia's mandatory climate-related financial disclosure regime is inching closer to implementation after the proposed legislative reforms were passed by both Houses of Parliament in September 2024. As discussed in our...more
ESG-related enforcement remains a top priority and focus for Australia's corporate regulators. Since our last update, there has been a steady stream of enforcement activity aimed at climate-related representations and...more
9/17/2024
/ ASIC ,
Australia ,
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ,
Australian Consumer Law ,
Climate Change ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Environmental Claims ,
Environmental Policies ,
Greenwashing ,
Investment
The Development: On August 22, 2024, the Australian Senate passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (Financial Market Infrastructure and Other Measures) Bill 2024 ("Bill")....more
The Federal Court of Australia has granted relief to a company under section 1317S of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) ("Act") following declarations that it contravened two civil penalty provisions in relation to one of its...more
Recent legal and regulatory developments, including the joint release of APRA and ASIC guidance concerning the new Financial Accountability Regime, APRA's announcement that it will publish superannuation expense data to...more
On 27 March 2024, Australia's climate disclosure regime moved a significant step closer to implementation, with the federal government's introduction of proposed legislation into Parliament. Any organisations with a presence...more
4/17/2024
/ ASIC ,
Audits ,
Australia ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Financial Reporting ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sustainability
Australia continues to be a highly active jurisdiction for climate-related lawsuits. Since our last update in August 2023, we have seen a steady stream of suits commenced against corporations and government bodies in relation...more
3/18/2024
/ ASIC ,
Australia ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Claims ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Environmental Violations ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Greenwashing ,
Net Zero ,
Popular ,
Renewable Energy
The Situation: The Australian government has released its widely anticipated exposure draft legislation for the introduction of Australia's national mandatory climate-related financial disclosures regime....more
In Short -
The Situation: In 2020, a cruise ship in Australian waters, the Ruby Princess, experienced a COVID‑19 outbreak that resulted in an Australian class action. Part of the class were passengers subject to...more
Although class actions have been common in the United States for decades, they have not been as widely used in the rest of the world. The situation and risks remain in flux, however, as more countries have renewed momentum to...more
12/22/2023
/ Article III ,
Australia ,
Class Action ,
EU ,
France ,
Germany ,
International Litigation ,
Jurisdiction ,
Settlement ,
Standing ,
UK
Australia continues to be a highly active jurisdiction for climate-related lawsuits. The last few years have seen multiple suits commenced against corporations and governments in relation to climate issues, with more filings...more
In Short -
The Situation: In 2018, the Australian federal government obligated Australian corporates to engage with modern slavery risks in their supply chain by enacting the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) ("the Act")....more
A significant newly enacted class actions regime has come into force in Western Australia, as of 25 March 2023.
The Civil Procedure (Representative Proceedings) Act 2022 (WA) ("Act") was enacted in September 2022,...more
This edition of the Update covers:
Recent legal and regulatory developments, including guidance to APRA-regulated entities following the cyber attacks on Medibank and Optus, the release of the inaugural Climate...more
Recent legislative and regulatory developments, including the Federal Government's draft regulations to deregulate litigation funding in class actions and the Civil Procedure (Representative Proceedings) Bill 2021, which...more
In Short -
The Situation: The Victorian Court of Appeal in Australia has delivered a decision with guidance to lawyers on their duties when dealing with witnesses in civil cases where there is a risk that the witnesses'...more
This edition of the Update covers: -
Recent legal and regulatory developments, including the commencement of cyber security incident notification obligations for critical financial market infrastructure assets, AUSTRAC's...more
More Detail: Regulation of Litigation Funding in Class Actions
In 2009, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia, in Brookfield Multiplex Ltd v International Litigation Funding Partners Pty Ltd [2009] FCAFC 147,...more
This edition of the Update covers:
Recent legal and regulatory developments, including the release of regulatory guidance on crypto asset-related investment products, the imposition of additional licence conditions on the...more