Judge releases decision on Bupa Aged Care class action
The Judge determined the case against Bupa Aged Care is not "incoherent and fatally flawed".
A Federal Court Judge has dismissed Bupa Aged Care's application to have the class action against it struck out.
In April 2025, Echo Law launched a class action in the Federal Court, alleging that between 1 July 2019 and 25 September 2025, Bupa Aged Care failed to provide staffing levels that would meet minimum acceptable standards in each of its aged care homes.
It alleges Bupa Aged Care:
- breached its contractual obligations to residents; and
- breached consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), by failing to provide services that are fit for purpose and delivered with due care and skill.
In June, Bupa sought to have the class action struck out, arguing the case was "incoherent".
In December, Judge Catherine Button dismissed the aged care provider's case. Though acknowledging Echo Law's claim is "unusual", she said the case "ought to be determined at trial".
"I am not satisfied that the Applicants’ case is incoherent and fatally flawed as Bupa contended," she said.
The matter will return to court on 8 May 2026.
In a separate case, in May 2020 the Federal Court ordered Bupa Aged Care Australia to pay $6 million in penalties for making misleading representations and wrongly accepting payments for extra services not provided or only provided in part to residents at 20 aged care homes. The Court also ordered Bupa to compensate all affected residents within 12 months with payments in total of around $18.3 million.
Bupa Aged Care owns and operates 57 residential aged care homes.
