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Roger Forbes  
Partner
T +61 2 9296 2150

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Kathleen Harris  
Special Counsel

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Sydney
Ashley Black  
Karen Coleman  
Kate Mills  

Melbourne
Chris Fox  
John Waters  

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An order to publish corrective advertising and an extension of the opt out deadline resulted from misstatements made by the solicitors for the plaintiff in a class action against Amcor and Visy claiming damages as a result of price fixing of cardboard packaging.

The court had ordered an opt out deadline in the class action and before the deadline for opting out had passed, the solicitor for the plaintiff class made comments in a media interview which incorrectly attributed to the ACCC statements about the extent to which Visy and Amcor overcharged their customers during the cartel and the estimated damages that could be expected to be awarded in the case.

The Court found by attributing these views to the ACCC, the solicitor’s comments may have caused class members to give the statements more weight than if they were simply statements by the solicitors. In the Court’s view, the impact of this impression was particularly important given that class members were still considering whether to opt out of the class.

The Court ordered that the plaintiff’s law firm publish corrective advertising at their own expense and that the opt out deadline be extended by one month.