To Bar Order, or Not to Bar Order: Facilitating Settlement in Australian Anti-Cartel Class Actions

Bethany Moore

Australian Business Law Review

Bethany Moore, ‘To Bar Order, or Not to Bar Order: Facilitating Settlement in Australian Anti-Cartel Class Actions’ (2020) 48(1) Australian Business Law Review 27

Abstract

Bar orders provide settling respondents with certainty and finality by prohibiting contribution claims against them. This article explores the availability of bar orders in Australia as a mechanism to resolve some of the obstacles currently facing privately enforced anti-cartel class actions. It does this by analysing bar orders in the United States and Canada, as well as recent developments in Australian class actions jurisprudence. It contends that the power to make bar orders in Australia is available, and that the application of this power in anti-cartel class actions would facilitate resolutions that are consistent with the overarching purpose of Australia’s representative proceedings regime, while also improving access to justice for cartel victims and strengthening existing deterrence measures.