Class Action Against Banks for Excessive Fees Filed
Tuesday 12 August 2014 @ 12.00 p.m. | Trade & Commerce
Maurice Blackburn has today (12 August 2014) filed the broadest class action in Australian legal history, bringing lawsuits against ANZ, Citibank and Westpac in the NSW Supreme Court. Actions against NAB, American Express and the Commonwealth Bank are expected to follow.
Background to the Claim
Known as an ‘‘open class’’, this is the opposite of previous bank class actions, which ran as ‘‘closed classes’’ and required victims to register to join. Despite the need to register, the closed class cases attracted more than 180,000 customers who claimed a total of $223 million.
Every customer of the target institutions who has been stung by excessive late fees on credit cards especially will automatically be included in the class action, making it difficult to estimate the size of the potential claim.
There is also no time limit on how far back in time the fees might be clawed back, although the ANZ will next week ask a court to impose one.
Previous Action Against ANZ
The new class action builds on Maurice Blackburn’s partial victory in a Federal Court case against ANZ that has been running since 2010.
In February, Justice Michelle Gordon found that ANZ’s credit card late fees of up to $35 were a penalty and were ‘‘extravagant and unconscionable’’ because they were excessive compared to the cost to the bank of as little as 50¢. She also waived the usual six-year time limit on legal action, saying there was no restriction on how far back class members could claim the late fees because they did not know the fees were unlawful until the lawsuit was lodged in 2010.
However, she threw out Maurice Blackburn’s claims that other fees, including dishonour fees and overlimit fees, were excessive. The banks have reaped about $6 billion from the various so-called ‘‘exception fees’’, with late fees on credit cards making up about a quarter of the profit amount.
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