The year to 30 June 2022 saw at least 54 new class actions filed, which marked the lowest total since 2017/2018.
Class actions filed in the year ending 30 June 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