Maher v Commonwealth Bank of Australia & Ors

The applicant, Maher, brought proceedings against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and two of its employees, alleging that the Bank and its employees had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in contravention of s 52 of the *Trade Practices Act 1974* (Cth) (the Act). Maher claimed that he had been induced to enter into a loan agreement with the Bank by representations made by the Bank's employees concerning the terms and conditions of the loan, which he later discovered to be false. The matter came before Crennan J of the Federal Court of Australia.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the conduct of the Commonwealth Bank and its employees in making representations about the loan agreement constituted misleading or deceptive conduct in contravention of s 52 of the *Trade Practices Act 1974* (Cth). This required the Court to consider the nature of the representations made, whether they were in fact misleading or deceptive, and whether they caused Maher to enter into the loan agreement.

Crennan J found that the representations made by the Bank's employees regarding the loan agreement were not misleading or deceptive. His Honour applied the established legal principles for determining misleading or deceptive conduct, which involve assessing whether the conduct, viewed objectively, had the tendency or capacity to lead a person into error. In this instance, the Court concluded that the statements made by the employees accurately reflected the terms of the loan agreement and did not create any false impression in Maher's mind. Consequently, there was no contravention of s 52 of the Act.