Facing allegations that it misused its market power with major retailers, Mastercard is challenging a ruling for the ACCC that lays bare discussions about merchant agreements involving inhouse lawyers.
Mastercard has lost its claim for legal professional privilege over communications between its chief financial officer in Singapore and in-house counsel about merchant agreements the ACCC alleges were anti-competitive.
A judge has found that Mastercard can maintain legal professional privilege over a document that was inadvertently sent to the ACCC in 2020 after lawyers at Baker McKenzie had to review 100,000 documents in less than two months.
Mastercard says legal professional privilege remained over a document after a junior lawyer “inadvertently” sent it to the ACCC in 2020 while the credit card giant was trying to dissuade the regulator from continuing an investigation into alleged anti-competitive conduct.
Mastercard has pushed back on the ACCC’s argument that it waived privilege over communications with lawyers, saying it would “take the law of waiver to a place it has never been before”.
The former CEO of the Star was not responsible for every aspect of the business and instead played a “supervisory role”, a court has heard in ASIC’s case over the casino’s money laundering failures.
Star Entertainment’s management and board cannot shirk responsibility for turning a blind eye to money laundering risks by pointing the finger at each other, ASIC has told a court.
A business lender that issued personal loans is on the hook for unlicensed credit activity, but ASIC’s action against the director has failed, with a judge finding the regulator was “entirely indifferent” to the circumstances of the case.
On questioning by a judge, Star’s former top lawyer has denied making a mistake by failing to tell the board about issues with junket Suncity in May 2018, but said her view was different now with hindsight.
During trial on Monday, ASIC also accused Star’s former top lawyer of giving false evidence about alleged cash for chip transactions in junket operator Suncity’s VIP room.