Apartment owners seeking damages in the country's first combustible cladding class actions now wield a bigger stick against the suppliers and manufacturers of Alucobond and Vitrabond panels after a judge last week ruled they could expand their claims under Australian Consumer Law.

Claimants in the two separate, but similar cases, were given leave in the Federal Court to add claims for false or misleading representations and misleading conduct against the manufacturers of Alucobond polyethylene-core cladding and Vitrabond polyethylene-core cladding.