Record settlements, landmark High Court decisions, and a spike in filings have pushed Australia’s class action landscape to new heights – and a partner from KWM has revealed that the surge is set to continue.
Australia’s class action landscape reached unprecedented heights over the past year, marked by landmark High Court rulings, historic settlement amounts, and a surge in filings across multiple claim types, according to King & Wood Mallesons’ latest report.
The Review: Class Actions Year in Australia 2024/2025 dissected and analysed the trends shaping what has become one of the country’s most commercially significant areas of litigation.
This year saw record-breaking class action settlements, with more than $1.9 billion approved – exceeding the total of the previous two years combined. An additional $1.5 billion awaits approval, including five settlements exceeding $100 million each.
The report also highlighted the High Court’s increasingly active role in shaping representative proceedings, with five landmark judgments showing the court’s readiness to shape how representative proceedings are conducted nationwide.
According to the KWM report, the High Court judgments addressed both major substantive legal questions, such as duties of care and loss calculations, and procedural matters, including funding arrangements and forum selection.
It wasn’t just record-breaking settlements or landmark High Court judgments that defined the year – according to the report, 2024–25 also saw at least 79 new class actions filed, up from 46 in the previous year.
However, the report noted that much of this increase was driven by a cluster of 19 related employment class actions filed in March against various health services.
Peta Stevenson, a partner in KWM’s dispute resolution team, shared that this year also saw consumer claims and other categories experience significant growth, reaching record numbers.
“Consumer claims and other categories also trended up. Consumer claims set a new record with 28 filings, led by claims under the Australian Consumer Law and ASIC Act and mirrored areas of active regulatory focus,” she said.
But it wasn’t limited to a single jurisdiction – Stevenson revealed that class action filings were spread “across all six jurisdictions” with a regime, marking the first time this had occurred.
Looking ahead, Stevenson shared that KWM anticipates this heightened level of activity in the class action space will continue, though she cautioned that “the compensation of claims is likely to evolve”.
Stevenson identified three key signals to shape the trajectory of future filings:
Regulatory alignment: “Plaintiff filings are tracking regulatory priorities (for example, consumer guarantees and digital markets), and the report notes record settlement approvals and more matters proceeding to judgment – both of which reinforce momentum,” she said.
Employment trajectory: “A significant Federal Court decision on annualised salary set-offs against award entitlements (Woolworths/Coles, September 2025) is expected to catalyse further wage underpayment actions, potentially broadening employee cohorts beyond traditional categories.”
Privacy and data: “Recent Privacy Act reforms introduced a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy and a compensation pathway tied to civil penalty proceedings (s80UA). While their full impact remains to be seen, the report anticipates greater procedural complexity and a fertile environment for privacy-related collective claims.”
However, she explained that the report has identified natural limiters on class action activity that could slow the extended rise currently being observed.
These include “scrutiny of late registrations and settlement deductions, a maturing approach to security for costs, and tighter handling of limitation issues when group definitions are amended”.
While she noted that these mechanisms can “temper filings”, Stevenson highlighted that the report indicates a trend of “sustained high activity rather than a reversion to earlier, lower averages”.
Based on this year’s findings and expectations for the near future, Stevenson advised stakeholders to “plan for continued volume” to be best prepared for this evolving and dynamic period in class actions.
