Conor Bannan

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. 

An appeals court has dismissed BlueScope Steel's challenge to a decision finding it engaged in attempted price-fixing and was on the hook for a record $57.5 million penalty.

Industrial technology company Delta Building Automation has lost its fight over a finding that it attempted to rig a bid for construction work on the National Gallery of Australia and must pay a $1.5 million penalty.

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".