54 New Class Actions filed to 31 July 2022

The year to 31 July 2022 saw at least 54 new class actions filed, which marked the lowest total since 2017/2018.

Class actions filed in the year ending 31 July 2022 included claims relating to:

• Consumers: business interruption insurance in the context of COVID-19; recalled respiratory devices; Priceline and Retail Food Group franchises; an EFTPOS facility outage; representations about motor vehicle fuel consumption; credit card interest.
• Against the State: COVID-19 vaccination; climate change risk; the age pension for Indigenous Australians; white spot disease affecting the prawn industry.
• Employment: doctors’ working hours; postgraduate research candidate hours; rest breaks for McDonald’s employees; vaccine mandates.
• Securities: a2 Milk; Nuix; Beach Energy; EML Payments; The Star Entertainment Group; Virgin Australia; Mesoblast.
• Financial products/investments: Dixon Advisory; Qoin (see Cryptocurrency section of The Review); fees on superannuation products; trading losses from CFDs and binary options (see Cryptocurrency section of The Review).
• Competition: app purchases (Google and Apple).

Source: King & Wood Mallesons