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Medibank hit with shareholder class action
Another class action has been launched against health insurance giant Medibank on behalf of the shareholders caught up in the data breach.
Naomi Neilson
Just days after Medibank was hit with a $250 million fine by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, law firm Phi Finney McDonald announced it has commenced a shareholder class action.
Phi Finney McDonald is seeking compensation for shareholders and said it is separate from privacy litigation brought by Medibank customers whose personal and health information was breached.
The firm’s principal lawyer, Cameron Myers, said they have considered there are grounds for legal action following preliminary investigations.
“Medibank’s customers and shareholders quite rightly expected the company, as one of Australia’s largest private health insurers, to take adequate steps to protect the incredibly sensitive information it held.
“Indeed, Medibank fostered this belief by informing the market that it had appropriate protections in place,” Mr Myers said.
In October 2022, Medibank issued an ASX statement that there had been a breach of personal data from approximately 9.7 million current and former Medibank customers and its related entities.
It claimed 480,000 customers’ health claims data was accessed during this breach, with hackers since making this information available.
The firm’s class action has alleged the insurance provider engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and breached its continuous disclosure obligations in relation to the adequacy of its privacy and information security protections, it said in a statement.
“This market was clearly concerned about the distress and related impact on customers whose data had been accessed, and what that meant for company costs and revenue,” Mr Myers said.
“Based on our preliminary investigations, we believe that Medibank shareholders are entitled to be compensated for losses suffered from the erosion of trust and confidence in Medibank once the true state of affairs was acutely exposed.”
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
