Companies

A prominent Perth property developer who claims he was defamed by two WAToday articles has lost his bid to plead the existence of a conspiracy between publisher Fairfax and others, including Liberal MP Andrew Hastie and the former leader of the WA Liberals.

A court has ruled that media reports accusing well-known orthopaedic surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis of unethical and profit-driven promotion of an experimental procedure were substantially true, tossing his defamation suit against Fairfax and its owner Nine.  

The privacy regulator has brought a case against Optus over a 2022 data breach that affected up to 10 million people, as the telco faces a class action and related proceedings by the media regulator.

Energy giant Santos has won a dispute over its Gladstone LNG project, described by a court as "litigation on a monumental scale", securing a $692 million judgment against engineering firm Fluor with the help of four silks.

A judge that granted carriage of a Google ad tech class action to Maurice Blackburn and Phi Finney McDonald has reiterated concerns that such cooperative arrangements between firms could breach competition law.

A judge overseeing class actions against Coles and Woolworths over alleged illusory discounts has raised concerns about a bid to bind group members to findings in similar cases by the ACCC. 

The administrators of the Dartbrook coal mine in the New South Wales' Hunter Valley have won six more months before holding a second creditors meeting, with a judge convinced a pending approval to extend the mine’s life until 2033 could make or break a sale.

A judge has spiked Piper Alderman's class action alleging Google abuses its dominance in digital advertising, favouring a competing case run jointly by two other firms, despite suggesting such arrangements hinted at lawyers “passing the prize around”. 

K&L Gates has bolstered its tax disputes offering, snagging a partner from Deloitte with experience in transfer pricing controversies for its Sydney office.

A Sydney barrister who won defamation proceedings against Nine over an Instagram-famous cavoodle has sought to disqualify a judge from hearing a dispute with her solicitors over costs, citing a lunch he had with Nine’s silk.