This edition of the Update covers:
1. Recent legal and regulatory developments, including the release of ASIC's immunity policy for market misconduct offences, a FATF consultation on proliferation of financial risk and...more
The Situation: It is increasingly common for Australian class actions to be brought by private plaintiffs at the same time as regulatory proceedings are brought by Australia's corporate, competition and other regulators in...more
There is no "one size fits all" approach to competing class actions.
Five competing and overlapping shareholder class actions were commenced in two separate Australian courts against AMP Limited. All actions were...more
REST and Statewide Superannuation become the first industry superannuation funds to be caught in the crosshairs of ASIC's "why not litigate" approach to enforcement.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission...more
The Situation: Australia's Federal Government has announced that it intends to make permanent reforms introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to continuous disclosure requirements for ASX-listed companies. The temporary...more
The Situation: Australia has become a hot spot for class actions fueled in large part by litigation funders, who have operated for many years in a largely unregulated market and have derived spectacular returns from their...more
A major superannuation fund has promised to enhance its management of climate change risks, disclose to members how those risks are addressed and align its investment portfolios to net-zero emissions by 2050.
In mid-2018,...more
Australia's corporate regulator has released its Corporate Plan, which outlines its strategic litigation goals and governance initiatives over the next four years.
On 31 August 2020, the Australian Securities and...more
Australia's landmark Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry that was conducted throughout 2018 and reported in early 2019 highlighted numerous examples of potential...more
The Background: The competing class actions, particularly in relation to shareholder claims, have increased in Australia due to the incentives in the Australian legal market, namely minimal regulation of litigation funding...more
Recent strategies and initiatives announced by Australia's corporate and prudential regulators and the Australian government's release in August 2019 of its Financial Services Royal Commission Implementation Roadmap provide a...more
This is Jones Day's fifth review of Australian class actions developments. The White Paper reviews the class actions that were commenced and settled in 2018–2019. The White Paper also examines the types of novel claims that...more
8/16/2019
/ Australia ,
Class Action ,
Climate Change ,
Employment Litigation ,
Financial Services Industry ,
International Litigation ,
Litigation Funding ,
Securities Litigation ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Strict Product Liability ,
Superannuation
The Situation: The Parliament of Western Australia has introduced new legislation to modernise the State's class action regime (which is seen to be outdated, uncertain and silent on many important procedural aspects of...more
Australia has started to observe a rise in the number of data breach class actions being investigated and filed, although there has not yet been a successful data breach class action there. A range of factors are at play...more
5/28/2019
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Australia ,
Breach Notification Rule ,
Class Action ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Collection ,
Data Protection ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
International Data Transfers ,
Popular ,
Privacy Laws
Product recalls are becoming increasingly common. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ("ACCC") and industry-specific regulators are very active in both overseeing product recalls and prosecuting non-compliance...more
The Situation: Fernandez & Anor v State of New South Wales & Ors [2019] NSWSC 255 raised the question: In a situation where there are multiple defendants, is it necessary that a class representative have a claim against each...more
Courts Empowered, More Action Needed on Shareholder Claims and Contingency Fee for Class Action Lawyers to Increase Class Action Activity -
The Australian Law Reform Commission Class Action and Litigation Funding Report...more
The Situation: It is relatively uncommon in Australia for workers or employees to bring class actions against their employers in which they allege sham contracting arrangements.
The Development: Four class actions, which...more
The Situation: The court's general power to make "any order [it] thinks appropriate or necessary to ensure that justice is done" in a class action has been employed to make a wide range of orders, including to remove the...more
The Background: In a shareholder class action, the plaintiff sought discovery of documents from the defendant partnership in relation to alleged statutory contraventions associated with its role as auditor of a company that...more
Although Australia's Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) has contained criminal cartel prohibitions since 2009, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has now made criminal cartel enforcement one of its top...more
8/3/2018
/ Australia ,
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ,
Cartels ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
Criminal Antitrust Litigation ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Foreign Exchanges ,
Immunity ,
Popular ,
Price-Fixing
The Situation: Competing class actions, particularly in relation to shareholder claims, have increased in Australia and imposed unnecessary costs on respondents. In Perera v GetSwift Limited [2018] FCA 732, Lee J of the...more
The Commonwealth Senate Economics Committee (a standing committee composed by members of the upper house of Parliament) handed down its long-awaited final report on corporate tax avoidance in Australia. The final report is...more
A number of Federal Court of Australia judgments in the first half of 2018 have adopted or raised reforms to the mandatory approval process for class action settlements. The reforms mean that the class action settlement...more
Twenty-five years after the introduction of Australia’s federal class action regime, class action law remains a significant element of the country’s litigation landscape. Enhancements to Australia’s class action jurisprudence...more