TWE takes action against class action instigator Treasury Wine is facing two class action lawsuits over a surprise write-down linked to its troubled US wine business. Treasury Wine Estates, the world's biggest winemaker, has sought an injunction in the Supreme Court of Victoria against lawyer-turned-class action specialist Mark Elliott to stop him gaining access to its shareholder register. The owner of iconic brands such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Lindemans believes Mr Elliott, a former partner with Minter Ellison who has set up his own business pitching shareholder class actions, will use its shareholder register for improper purposes and to communicate with its shareholders to help build his lawsuit. Treasury Wine has taken action against Mr Elliott personally, BusinessDay can reveal, rather than his class action investment vehicle Melbourne City Investments which is also engaged in other shareholder class actions against Leighton Holdings and collapsed financial services group Banksia. Treasury Wine is facing two class action lawsuits flowing from the surprise $160 million write-down and profit warning in July linked to its troubled US wine business. Mr Elliott is running his own action, while litigation funder IMF and its partner law firm Maurice Blackburn are erecting their own shareholder class action. Both will argue Treasury Wine failed to meet its continuous disclosure obligations around the US writedown. The battle between Mr Elliott and the wine group is set to play out in court on Friday where Treasury Wine will push the court to keep its shareholder register and the details of its 73,000 investors confidential. A Treasury Wine company spokesperson told BusinessDay today: "Treasury Wine wants to ensure that any private information regarding its shareholder details is only provided for an appropriate and lawful purpose. ""Treasury Wine strongly denies any allegations it has breached its disclosure obligations and intends to fight any litigation to that effect." In court documents obtained by BusinessDay, a lawyer acting for Treasury Wine said in an affidavit that Mr Elliott had indicated he wished to communicate with Treasury Wine shareholders. ""The purpose for which I seek access to copies of register is in order to enable me to ascertain the names and addresses of the shareholders so that I can make proper arrangements to communicate with them in respect of the class action,"" the affidavit reports Mr Elliott said in a letter this month seeking a copy of the register. Elliott hits back Mr Elliott has hit back at Treasury Wine's injunction against him today, telling BusinessDay in an exclusive interview that the winemaker's action was an attempt by the company to frustrate his legitimate and lawful access to the share register. He warned that if Treasury Wine believed they could persuade him to drop his case by flooding him with court actions they didn't know him very well. ""Treasury Wine are doing everything they can to frustrate me, to obfuscate, and at the outset they sent silly letters and their lawyers are working around the clock thinking attrition is going to stop me - they haven't done their homework."" He said he had a right to view the register. ""My access is innocuous and hypothetical, because all I said was i'd like to have access to the register just to look at it in case I want to do something with it in the future within the prescribed purpose,"" Mr Elliott told BusinessDay. ""Tell me why a company acting properly wouldn't say to me, "Mr Elliott you are a lawyer of 30 years standing, a good citizen and fellow shareholder, if you enter into some undertaking with us, the purpose you want the register ... why won't the company allow me to communicate with fellow shareholders for a proper purpose?"" ""Whether or not I ever write to the shareholders in respect of the class action is hypothetical, at the moment I want access to the register and my primary purpose at the moment is to look at it because I want to understand how many shareholders there are, where they are, where they are located, are they rural, overseas, domestic, I just want to know the profile of the open class."" Mr Elliott's lawsuit is an "open" class action meaning all Treasury Wine shareholder are automatically covered by his case, this is different to the IMF action which is "closed" and requires investors to opt in to the case by signing up and joining the action. Mr Elliott said because all shareholders are covered by his class action there was no real need for him to immediately communicate with Treasury Wine investors. ""I'm an "opt out" class action and they are the only classes that I run, Banksia, Leighton and Treasury Wine are all opt out in other words I don't need to talk to you, I wouldn't actually need to talk to Treasury Wine shareholders for the forseeable future and certainly not this side of Christmas."" Mr Elliott also lashed out at Treasury Wine boss Warwick Every-Burns who last week in BusinessDay complained about out of control shareholder class actions that he said were distracting companies and usurping the role of regulators. ""The CEO of Treasury, Warwick Every-Burns, has been complaining about how unfair class actions are and I was surprised because I thought it's very unusual for a CEO to be complaining about somebody who is trying to ensure compliance with the law and I think to suggest ASX and ASIC have got that job and everybody else should just sit idol didn't make a lot of sense to me. ""And the irony struck me because Mr Every-Burns is complaining about litigation and is complaining about the waste of time and resources of litigation and obviously instructed his law firm Herbert Smith Freehills who have issued proceedings against me in the Supreme Court personally, against me, because I made an application to the share registry."" Mr Elliott said he was personally funding his case including the hiring of QCs and other court costs. ""Nobody cares if my intentions are righteous, all they [Treasury Wine] care is that we have got to stop this bloke and let's use litigation, and the irony of that just smacked me in the face because I'm a shareholder to start, I'm running a class action on a no-win no-fee basis ...for something I say the company has done. ""I'm spending money hand over fist to right the wrong.""