Guy Abrahams v Commonwealth Bank of Australia

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

Federal Court of Australia

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

14/09/2017

LITIGATION TYPE

Corporate Accountability

SUBJECT MATTER

Transparency and disclosure

REVIEW TYPE

Merits review

SUMMARY

The case was brought by advocacy group, Environmental Justice Australia (EJA), on behalf of two longstanding Commonwealth Bank shareholders. EJA argues that climate change creates material financial risks to the bank, its business and customers, and it failed in their duty to disclose those risks to investors, as required under Corporations law. The claim filed by the CBA shareholders alleges the bank has contravened two central provisions of the Corporations Act 2001:

companies must include a financial report within the annual report which gives a “true and fair” view of its financial position and performance, and
companies must include a director’s report that allows shareholders to make an “informed assessment” of the company’s operations, financial position, business strategies and prospects.

The shareholders argue that the CBA knew – or ought to have known – that climate-related risks could seriously disrupt the bank’s performance. Therefore, investors should have been told the CBA’s strategies for managing those risks so they could make an informed decision about their investment. The plaintiffs withdrew from the proceedings, after changes were made to the CBA's 2017 annual report.

CASE DOCUMENTS

VID879/2017 Guy Abrahams v Commonwealth Bank of Australia