Companies

A judge has shot down a bid by Nine, the ABC and a high-profile journalist to use articles reporting on Dr Chau Chak Wing's $280,000 defamation victory as evidence mitigating the harm to his reputation from a report at the centre of a separate defamation case.

Pfizer unit Wyeth is seeking to overturn part of a judge's decision in its high-stakes patent dispute with Merck Sharp & Dohme that found claims in two of its patents relating to the blockbuster Prevnar 13 pneumococcal vaccine were invalid.

Macquarie Bank has been ordered to fork out $330,000 to dozens of former advisers for a "defective and deficient" system which saw the bank fail to pay a raft of employment entitlements.

Three unions representing Qantas workers have asked the High Court for special leave to appeal a  ruling from the Full Federal Court siding with the airline in a dispute over the operation of the JobKeeper wage subsidy.

A former general manager has sued engineering and construction firm John Holland Group alleging he was fired for raising safety concerns about defects in the Canberra Light Rail system.

Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.

A judge has rejected a bid by Uber to significantly trim a class action brought by Maurice Blackburn on behalf of successors and assignees or taxi drivers after the law firm unsuccessfully sought to add them to a separate class action against the ride share giant.

Last-mile logistics software company GetSwift has ceased trading on the ASX after its relocation to Canada got the greenlight by the Federal Court and FIRB despite the company facing ongoing litigation in Australia.

Law firm Slater & Gordon has brought a class action against ANZ alleging former subsidiary OnePath Custodians breached its duties as a trustee of superannuation funds by slugging members with excessive fees to pay commissions to financial advisers.

Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram have lost a bid to shut down a lawsuit brought by an Australian social media startup, with a judge finding the digital giants relinquished their right to move the dispute to California.