Digital giants Google and Facebook will be required to pay for news content under a new mandatory code being developed by the Government to create a ‘level playing field’ in the Australian media industry, which is facing a sharp decline in advertising revenue driven by the coronavirus.
Target Australia is facing a possible class action for allegedly failing to pay staff overtime or penalties for time that they worked, two months after revealing it underpaid staff at its retail stores $9 million.
The second of two class actions brought against Westpac over alleged anti-money laundering breaches has been denied discovery of what the bank claims are commercially sensitive documents until the law firms behind the class actions work out how their competing cases will proceed.
Grain handling group Viterra has been denied a post-hearing bid to reopen a lawsuit brought by Cargill Australia over its $420 million acquisition of Joe White, with a judge finding the application would lead to “substantial disruption and delay”.
The High Court has agreed to weigh in on a decision last year to pick Maurice Blackburn’s case as the winner of a beauty parade of shareholder class actions against AMP over the wealth manager’s controversial fees for no service.
Ford has lost its bid to delay an upcoming virtual trial in a class action over allegedly defective PowerShift transmissions, with a judge saying the parties must try to make a virtual trial work because the current “unsatisfactory” circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic could continue for a year or more.
A judge has refused to summarily dismiss a defamation case brought by a government worker against Twitter, Google and Yahoo over racist, homophobic, anti-Muslim and conspiratorial tweets resulting from an alleged identity theft.
The High Court has quashed a search warrant obtained by the Australian Federal Police and used to raid a News Corp journalist’s home, but did not go so far as to order the return or destruction of documents obtained in the raid.
Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram will call for a stay of a Federal Court competition lawsuit brought by an Australian social media startup as it seeks to arbitrate the matter under Californian law.
A Federal Court judge has praised an attempt by Shine Lawyer’s head of litigation to create an audio-visual opt out notice for its insurance class action against Westpac, but jokingly remarked that her performance would not win her any acting plaudits.