Allianz car dealer add-on insurance class action

Maurice Blackburn is sending legitimate text messages, emails and postal notices between 14 and 24 January 2024 from MBLawyers and addonclassaction@mauriceblackburn.com.au

We are sending these Notices to notify certain group members that the parties have agreed to settle the Allianz class action for $170 million without admission of liability.

If you received a text, email or postal notice from Maurice Blackburn, the Supreme Court of Victoria ordered this to be sent to you. It is safe to open the email / SMS and click the links within them. 

We are sending notices to the last known contact details of all Registered Group Members, being individuals who registered by 15 July 2024 at 4pm (AEST).

We are also sending notices to individuals who registered after the deadline. If you registered after the deadline, the text message or email to you will say so. For example, the email subject line will read: “Court Notice regarding Allianz class action – late registration”. See the FAQ below “I registered after the deadline. What does that mean?”

The Court made an order permitting people who mistakenly registered for the AAI & MTA add-on insurance class action instead of the Allianz class action to be considered registered group members in the Allianz class action. Individuals were identified as having mistakenly registered for the AAI class action if their registration details did not match AAI’s records but did match Allianz’s records. You may have received a notice if this applies to you.

You can read more about the Allianz class action on the Supreme Court of Victoria website.

The Court will hold a hearing to decide whether to approve the settlement on 11 March 2024 at 10:00am (AEDT).

The Court must approve the settlement before it will take effect. The Court will need to decide whether the proposed settlement is fair and reasonable in the interests of the group members.

The Court will also consider whether any deductions from the settlement sum are fair and reasonable, including legal costs (25% of the settlement sum), reimbursement payments to the two plaintiffs ($30,000 to each plaintiff), and the costs of administering the settlement (estimated at $5 million excluding GST).

All group members have the following options:

Option 1: Do nothing

If you are content with the proposed settlement, and do not want to object to it, you do not need to do anything in response to this notice.

If the proposed settlement is approved, updates will be published on Maurice Blackburn’s website after the settlement approval hearing on 11 March 2025 at 10:00am (AEDT) in the Supreme Court of Victoria. You will be contacted at a later date with further information about anything you need to do.

Option 2: You can object to the proposed settlement

You can object to the proposed settlement if you think it should not be approved. See the below FAQ “How do I object to the proposed settlement?”

We cannot tell you what you should do. It is your choice. You should read the Notice carefully before you decide what to do. You may wish to seek independent legal advice.

If you want to object to the proposed settlement you need to either:

1. complete and submit the Online Objection Notice through the Supreme Court of Victoria website. Or
2. complete the ‘Notice of Objection’ form at the end of the full Notice of Proposed Settlement  and send it to the Court by email or post at the addresses on the form.

You need to submit your objection by 4:00pm (AEDT) on 10 February 2025 for it to be considered by the Court.

You, or your legal representative must also attend the settlement approval hearing (unless the Court orders otherwise), which is on 11 March 2025 at 10:00am (AEDT) in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

If you think you might want to object then please read the full Notice of Proposed Settlement, which explains the process in more detail.

If you received an email, text message or postal notice from Maurice Blackburn about this class action between 14 and 24 January 2024, you have registered.

If you registered after the deadline, the text message or email to you will say so. For example, the email subject line will read: “Court Notice regarding Allianz class action – late registration”.

If you are an eligible group member and you registered by 15 July 2024 at 4pm (AEST) you may be eligible to receive compensation if the Court approves the proposed settlement.

You are a group member if, at any time between 1 June 2006 and 27 September 2021, you:

1. purchased a motor vehicle or motorcycle (vehicle) from a vehicle dealership;
2. purchased one or more of the following add-on insurance products issued by Allianz, or Allianz and Allianz Life, or offered by Allianz on behalf of OnePath Life Limited at or around the time you purchased the vehicle from the vehicle dealership: 
   • Loan Protection Insurance (also referred to as “repayment insurance”, “consumer credit insurance” or “CCI”);
   • Motor Equity Insurance (also referred to as “guaranteed asset protection insurance”, “GAP insurance”, “shortfall insurance”, “purchase price insurance” or “value protect insurance”);
   • Extended Motor Warranty (also referred to as “mechanical insurance”, “motor vehicle warranty” or “extended warranty insurance”); or
   • Tyre and Rim Insurance; and
3. became liable to pay or paid (directly or indirectly), a premium to either of Allianz, or Allianz and Allianz Life for the add-on insurance product(s).

However, if you did not register by 15 July 2024 at 4pm (AEST), you are not eligible to receive any compensation from the proposed settlement unless the Court makes a further order.

If you registered your interest by the deadline, this does not mean that you are eligible for the class action or that you will necessarily receive compensation.  Group member eligibility will be determined at a later stage and potential compensation amounts depend on a number of factors. If the settlement is approved, we will notify registered group members of how much compensation they are eligible to receive, if any.

If the Court approves the settlement, then some of the settlement sum will be used to pay:

1. legal costs (25% of the settlement sum),
2. reimbursement payments to the two plaintiffs ($30,000 to each plaintiff), and
3. the costs of administering payment of the settlement sum (estimated at $5 million (excluding GST)).

All of the above costs need to be approved by the Court before they can be deducted from the settlement sum.

The rest of the settlement sum will be shared proportionately between eligible registered group members, according to a ‘formula’ or method that the Court approves. This is set out in the plaintiffs’ proposed “settlement distribution scheme”.

A copy of the proposed settlement distribution scheme is available here, but the ‘formula’ referred to above is confidential and is not shown in this copy. If you are a group member, you may obtain a copy of the confidential schedule containing the formula by filling out and submitting this form. Please also read the Explanatory Note here, which provides a summary of the settlement distribution scheme.

We cannot provide an individual estimate of compensation amounts at this stage, and individual registered group members are not guaranteed to receive compensation from the settlement sum.

Compensation amounts will depend on a range of factors including individual circumstances, such as the price of your policy and when you purchased it.

It is harder to succeed on legal claims applying to some policies, in particular policies purchased before 7 July 2014, and so a greater reduction will be applied to those claims.

We are not yet in a position to advise anyone of individual compensation amounts or estimates and we cannot give further information at this time. We will be in contact regarding this once the settlement distribution process is underway.

We ask that you do not call our team to ask for an estimate of your compensation as we cannot give one at this time.

If the settlement is approved, we will contact registered group members in relation to next steps. 

The deadline to register for the Allianz Class Action passed on 15 July 2024 at 4pm (AEST).

Court orders required group members to register before the deadline in order to be eligible for any pre-trial settlement.

As the settlement was agreed prior to the trial commencing, this means that if the settlement is approved, group members who registered after the deadline are not eligible to receive potential compensation unless the Court makes a further order. But because you are a group member, you are still bound by the settlement, meaning you will not be able to sue Allianz for the issues covered by the class action.

There is nothing you need to do at this stage. Maurice Blackburn and JWS will identify late registrants in the evidence they file with the Court for settlement approval. You will be told whether the Court has permitted any late registrations to be accepted.

Only group members who registered by 15 July 2024 at 4pm (AEST) may be eligible to receive compensation, unless the Court grants permission otherwise.

If you opted out, you are no longer a group member in this class action. This means you are not eligible to receive any compensation from the proposed settlement and you are not bound by the terms of the settlement.

If you did not register for the class action, you are not eligible to receive potential compensation unless the Court makes a further order. But because you are a group member, you are still bound by the settlement, meaning you will not be able to sue Allianz for the issues covered by the class action.

Maurice Blackburn and JWS cannot assist with requesting permission from the Court to allow you to be a registered group member now. If you would like, you can seek independent legal advice about this.

The Court previously made a ‘group costs order’, which means that unless the Court changes this, the plaintiffs’ lawyers will receive 25% of the settlement sum to cover the legal costs they incurred and the risks they took in running the class action.

The Court can adjust the percentage that the lawyers will receive at the settlement approval hearing if it considers the adjustment to be appropriate.

Group members are not, and will not be, liable for any legal costs out of their own pocket.

Please note that the above legal costs are not the only proposed deductions from the settlement sum. For more information, please see the FAQ above ‘How will the compensation be distributed?’ or read the full Notice of Proposed Settlement under the heading ‘Deductions from the Settlement Sum’. 

No. Maurice Blackburn is also running another car dealer add-on insurance class action regarding insurance products sold by AAI & MTA. This is a separate class action. You could be a group member in both class actions.

The AAI & MTA Class Action is progressing in Court. The trial will commence on 19 February 2025.

You can read more about the AAI & MTA Class Action here.

The Court made an order permitting people who mistakenly registered for the AAI add-on insurance class action instead of the Allianz class action to be considered registered group members in the Allianz class action. Individuals were identified as having mistakenly registered for the AAI class action if their registration details did not match AAI’s records but did match Allianz’s records. You may have received a notice if this applies to you.

No. The Car Loan Flex Commission Class Actions relate to the loan term and interest rate you paid on your car loan, whereas the Allianz class action relates to certain add-on insurance products sold to customers at the time they purchased their car. It is possible to be a group member in both proceedings or only one of them.

In order to be eligible to claim in the Allianz class action, you were required to register in this proceeding by 15 July 2024 at 4pm. If you only registered in one or more of the flex commissions class actions and did not register in the Allianz class action, you are not eligible to claim in the proposed settlement of the Allianz class action.

You can read more about the Flex Commissions Class Actions here.

To update your contact details in relation to the Allianz class action, please email your previous and current details to addonclassaction@mauriceblackburn.com.au. Due to the volume of enquiries, we may not reply to your email individually. Once you have emailed us, you do not need to do anything else to update your details. 

Please read the FAQs above. If you still have questions, please carefully read the Notice.

If your questions have still not been answered, you can call or email our team on:

• 1800 497 191
• addonclassaction@mauriceblackburn.com.au

We are experiencing a very high volume of enquiries, and we may not be able to get back to you straight away.