Companies

Banks targeted in long-running class actions over flexible commission schemes for car dealers are resisting the plaintiffs’ bid to amend their pleadings to “get around” the defence that certain claims are time-barred.

Fortescue has rejected Element Zero’s “implausible” claims that the start-up's founder was instructed by the mining giant's IP manager to access and delete certain documents after his resignation, as it defends allegations that search orders it won over the alleged misappropriation of its confidential information were based on weak evidence.

Start-up Element Zero has attacked search orders won by Fortescue over the alleged misappropriation of the mining company's confidential information by three former employees, calling the orders an “industrial scale forensic debacle” won on weak evidence and the failure to disclose material information.

Super Retail Group has lost a bid to suppress parts of a case by former chief legal officer and company secretary Rebecca Farrell, who says she was sacked in May following complaints of corporate goverance issues, as a second senior employee steps up to back her former colleague's claims.

A judge has ruled that Acciona must deliver $38.6 million in bank guarantees to the entity in charge of a $511 million waste-to-energy plant in Western Australia, despite allegations of insolvency levelled by the Spanish infrastructure giant.

A former EY partner who was ousted after the tax office claimed he had promoted a $700,000 tax exploitation scheme has argued he is entitled to claim privilege over communications with the accounting firm's general counsel and an external barrister, despite EY having waived it. 

The competition watchdog has accepted an undertaking from TPG not to renew an agreement requiring it to pre-install Google on mobile devices it supplies, following similar undertakings given by Telstra and Optus last month. 

Buoyed by the recent trial success of CBA and other companies facing shareholder ire, building materials giant Boral is taking its chances at a hearing in a class action alleging disclosure breaches linked to its US windows business.

Contractor Kingfisher Mobile has dropped a claim against Telstra in a $45 million lawsuit alleging the telco breached a November 2022 contract when it engaged a new provider to take over. 

The consumer regulator must identify the advertisements it relies on to prove its case against Meta over scam cryptocurrency ads on Facebook, with a judge saying the social media giant should know the case it has to meet.