MG class action canned

THE class action proposed against dairy cooperative Murray Goulburn (MG) following the price crash in April 2016 has not proceeded.
Adley Burstyner principal lawyer David Burstyner said after MG reversed some of the impact of its clawback, the feasibility for pursuing a claim for the remainder of the clawback which MG did not remedy became “tricky”.
“The unremedied part included MG not reversing the clawback for farmers who switched processors, plus losses to all MG suppliers for May and June 2016 milk,” he said.
“Considering all of that and the shareholder structure of MG, we haven’t pursued that case. The whole saga with the impending end of what was once a cooperative is a very poor outcome for many MG farmers.”
Mr Burstyner said the law firm is still pursuing a claim for Fonterra suppliers, which would formally start in court as soon as possible.
“Many of our clients want to take action. They feel they can’t afford to let Fonterra’s clawback go unpunished,” he said.
“Otherwise, Fonterra may emerge increasingly confident about being able to do the same thing to farmers again if it ultimately gets away with it…exploitation of farmers without any real challenge.
“And of course the action aims to return to farmers the financial loss they suffered.”
Mr Burstyner said many farmers registered, but not all.
“At the end of the court proceeding, any farmer who doesn’t get in touch will not get the benefit of the case,” he said.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Dec 19 2017. Filed under Rural News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry