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.
In a major win for two class actions and Fortnite maker Epic Games, a judge has found that Apple and Google misused their market power in running app stores and in-app purchase systems.
Law firm HWL Ebsworth, which was found liable for negligence over advice on a Parramatta land development, has lost its opposition to a referee process for calculating damages.
Mayfield Development has been granted the High Court’s leave to make its argument that derivative Crown immunity does not apply to NSW Ports, in a seven-year-old competition case.
A lot has changed in Australia and the US since 2016, when Turnbull and Obama were still in power, but the same can’t be said for a negligence suit against HWL Ebsworth filed by a client that year, laments a wistful judge.
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”.
A judge has questioned whether he should decide a tax dispute that will impact how much damages a former HWL Ebsworth client will get in a nine year-old negligence case over a property development.
A judge has warned that an interlocutory privilege skirmish in the consumer watchdog’s misuse of market power case against Mastercard could “spiral out of control”.
The judge hearing the ACCC’s price-fixing case against Downer EDI’s Spotless and Ventia has proposed an initial hearing to determine if the companies are in competition, saying he won’t let the case become “totally unwieldy”.