Companies

A court has dismissed a claim by the Australian Government for $325 million against pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb allegedly owed for excess subsidies it paid for blood-thinner Plavix as a result of an interlocutory injunction blocking a generic version of the blockbuster drug.

Qantas breached the Fair Work Act by failing to pay personal carers leave and compassionate leave to employees stood down in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including one battling cancer and another awaiting triple bypass surgery, a court has heard.

Allowing Google's planned $3 billion acquisition of fitness device company Fitbit to go through would give the search giant "unprecedented" access to sensitive personal data and would substantially lessen competition in several markets, a privacy rights group has told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The Big Four banks were trying to shore up their profits when they refused to pass on home loan interest rate cuts to consumers in full last year, an interim report of an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry has found.

The High Court has agreed to hear a challenge by Westpac to a ruling in favour of ASIC that found the bank violated its duty to act in customers' best interests during a superannuation rollover campaign, a case that could clarify the line between personal and general financial advice.

Communications giant Optus has become the first telco to be hit with a class action for breach of privacy, with 50,000 customers seeking compensation for disclosure of their personal details.

Repeated suggestions of a planned strike out application are being used as a "threat" by four AMP subsidiaries and two trustees in a consolidated class action over allegedly excessive superannuation fees, a court has heard.

An appeals court has overturned a ruling ordering class closure in seven representative proceedings against car makers over defective Takata airbags, finding courts do not have the power to make class closure orders.

The power of courts to choose a single winner from a contest of competing class actions is not the likely target of the High Court in taking up a challenge to last year's beauty parade of shareholder proceedings against AMP, but the analysis behind the decision to award Maurice Blackburn the prize could face scrutiny, experts say.

A Fair Work Commission appeals panel has upheld a ruling that an Uber Eats delivery driver allegedly let go for being 10 minutes late was not an employee and was therefore not protected by unfair dismissal laws.