Australia is renowned for having a very fertile securities class action and litigation funding environment (see here). Concern as to the frequency and severity of shareholder class actions is such that an Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into shareholder class actions is currently underway.
Unlike the emerging trend in the US, however, Australia is yet to see a specifically data, cyber or privacy breach related shareholder action. In this article, we consider whether such a class action is possible. We conclude that there are a number of developments that could combine to increase the likelihood of such a type of class action arise in Australia in the not too distant future.
