The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has given the green light to the National Australia Bank’s proposed $1.2 billion acquisition of Citigroup’s Australian consumer business, finding the deal is not likely to substantially lessen competition.
The insolvency administrator of Germany-based Greensill Bank AG has launched court proceedings against Insurance Australia Limited seeking US$35 million allegedly owed under a policy indemnifying the collapsed financial services firm for unrecovered debts.
The lawyers and funder behind a shareholder class action against Crown Resorts will be asking the court to approve fees and commission worth 35 per cent of a $125 million settlement with the gaming giant, leaving over $81 million for group members.
Hospitality giant Merivale has streamlined its defence of a $129 million underpayment class action, arguing that it shouldn’t be expected to back pay employees because it operated its business under the mistaken belief that its enterprise agreement governing staff at 70 of its venues was valid.
A judge has directed that the legal fees and funding commission sought to be deducted from a $125 million class action settlement with Crown Resorts be included in a proposed notice to shareholders, after learning that group members were forced to click through to Maurice Blackburn’s website to find the “critical” figures.
McDonald’s Australia has been joined as a second respondent in a union-led lawsuit that accuses the fast food giant of “conspiring to deliberately deny workers their breaks”.
A class action on behalf of people who claim they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer will argue the agrochemical giant should be hit with exemplary damages for its negligence in selling the herbicide, which the company allegedly knew caused cancer.
The Finance Sector Union has launched legal proceedings in the Fair Work Commission against the Commonwealth Bank for allegedly sacking an employee who breached a “draconian” salary secrecy clause.
Honda Motors has failed to strike out or permanently stay a proceeding seeking discovery for a possible lawsuit over the Japanese car maker’s decision to abandon its Australian dealership model, with a judge rejecting Honda’s argument that the preliminary discovery application didn’t meet the requirements for service abroad.
IP Australia has won its appeal of a judge’s decision to allow four Aristocrat patents for its popular Lightning Link electronic poker machine to proceed to grant, with the Full Court finding the invention merely implemented an abstract idea on a computer and was not patentable.