The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will get an additional $26.9 million to take on Google and Facebook, but the Federal Government will proceed more slowly in implementing some of the more wide-ranging proposals in the regulator’s final digital platforms report, including suggested changes to privacy and merger review laws.
The Australian liquidator of Lehman Brothers has filed a lawsuit seeking $40 million from Fitch Ratings for assigning too-rosy ratings to toxic financial products sold by the bank, following the discovery of a hidden table in Fitch’s rating model by the lawyers leading a now-settled class action against the accounting firm.
Westpac has filed a special leave application with the High Court seeking further clarity on the line between personal and general advice under financial services laws, after an appeals court handed ASIC a significant win in finding the bank violated its duty to act in its customers’ best interests during a superannuation rollover campaign.
US biotech giant Gilead has struck back at a patent infringement lawsuit brought by a specialist HIV pharmaceutical company majority owned by GlaxoSmithKline, saying the patent at the centre of the lawsuit is invalid.
Petrol station convenience store chain On The Run is facing a possible class action over allegations that it has underpaid employees at over 145 stores throughout South Australia.
A judge has given the green light to a $1.5 million settlement in a long-running class action against ANZ alleging it slapped customers with illegal fees, with group members expected to get no more than $100 and potentially walking away with “substantially less” than this.
There is a “reasonable chance” that two shareholder class actions against failed electronics retailer Dick Smith will settle by February of next year, group members have learned.
Melbourne-based fintech company ISignthis is taking the Australian Stock Exchange to court for refusing to lift the suspension of its shares and allegedly digging for confidential information to “find a problem”.
The construction company behind Sydney’s Opal Tower has filed a cross claim seeking $30 million from structural architect WSP Structures over its allegedly faulty building design.
Fast food giant Domino’s has denied allegations that it violated consumer law with the representations it made to franchisees about the agreements its workers were covered under, saying it was only giving franchisees its opinion.