Companies

Lawyers for IOOF chief financial officer David Coulter have dismissed APRA’s allegations that he breached his superannuation duties as commercially “naïve”, “absolutely desperate” and a "most egregious example” of impulsive regulatory enforcement action.

The publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times have lost an appeal of a $300,000 defamation award to cricketer Chris Gayle, despite the appeals court finding Gayle's barrister had gone "too far" in his submissions to the jury.

A court has barred US drug company Merck Sharp & Dohme from denying that an agreement made with German pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA was governed by German law, settling a key question before a trade mark case between the two drug giants goes to trial.

Two former executives of Dick Smith may seek to vacate an upcoming trial date for two class actions against the failed retailer, after recently being hit with cross claims by the company’s former auditor, Deloitte.

Indonesian national airline Garuda faces a possible contempt motion by the competition regulator for failing to pay a $19 million court-issued fine after it was found guilty of air cargo price-fixing, a failure a judge called "almost unthinkable".

The former directors of troubled fund manager IOOF have slammed APRA for bringing a “truly hopeless” disqualification case against them, telling a court the prudential regulator’s “Stalinist” approach was deterring “good people and good companies” from participating in the superannuation industry.

A judge has refused to approve Piper Alderman's $3.5 million in legal fees charged for running a class action against KPMG, appointing Grant Thornton as contradictor and giving the auditor the ability to seek assistance from the court for any future disputes about the controversial bill.

The corporate watchdog has warned “robust” enforcement action is on the cards for banks and lenders, after a review found consumer credit insurance policies to be "extremely poor value for money", paying out as little as 11 cents per dollar spent in premiums on average.

Rival law firms Maurice Blackburn and Phi Finney McDonald will be allowed to work together without consolidating their separate shareholder class actions against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, after a judge ruled that the bank had overstated the potential for extra costs and delays.

The Federal Court has granted auto giant Ford's request for the costs of an anti-suit injunction it sought in the PowerShift transmission class action that was ultimately unnecessary after the class was denied its bid to access discovery from similar proceedings in the United States.