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Crypto provider spared penalty in ASIC case because it took advice from leading law firm
A judge has excused cryptocurrency product provider Block Earner from paying a penalty in a case brought by ASIC, despite finding it provided a financial product without a licence, because it obtained legal advice and genuinely believed it was not breaching the law.
Latitude defeats customer’s $1M lawsuit over data breach
A judge has thrown out a self-represented customer’s lawsuit against non-bank lender Latitude Financial after he defaulted on court orders and refused to join tech giants DXC Technology and Crowdstrike to his case over a cyberattack that compromised 14 million customer records. 
In first, cafe franchisor 85 Degrees hit with $1.44M penalty for franchisee’s underpayments
A judge has ordered Sydney coffee shop chain 85 Degrees to pay a $1.44 million penalty for underpayments by its franchisees, saying it cannot be seen as acceptable for franchisors to “turn a blind eye” to contraventions by franchisees. 
ABC sacked radio host Antoinette Lattouf, FWC finds
Former radio host Antoinette Lattouf is planning to bring an unfair termination case against the broadcaster, after the Fair Work Commission found the ABC terminated her from a casual presenting role.
Neurim’s claim for additional damages survives in Circadin patent case
A judge has upheld Neurim Pharmaceutical’s claim for additional damages against two generic drug companies found to have infringed its patent for insomnia drug Circadin, despite the company's failure to comply with an earlier ruling.
Court OKs Cosmetic Institute class action settlement, signs off on $8.9M payout to lawyers
A judge has approved a $25 million settlement in a class action against a group of surgeons who worked for the Cosmetic Institute, including a $8.9 million payout for the lawyers that ran the seven-year-old case, saying the deduction from the settlement was reasonable given the "very significant discount" applied to the legal bill.
Honda’s abandonment of dealership model not unconscionable, judge finds
A Melbourne car dealer has largely lost a consumer law case against Honda Australia over its decision to abandon a dealership model, but is set to receive compensation for over 2,600 new vehicles it could have sold if Honda hadn’t ended its five-year contract early.
Payday lenders’ short-term loans not BNPL arrangements, judge says in ASIC win
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has prevailed in its case against payday lenders Cigno and BSF Solutions alleging they provided credit without a licence, with a judge rejecting their argument that their loan model was analogous to buy now, pay later arrangements that don’t require a credit licence.
Toyota class action loses bid for emissions cheat source code
A class action against Toyota alleging it installed diesel defeat devices in several models of its vehicles has lost a bid to access source code for the cars’ emissions control systems, with a judge finding it was not relevant to any current fact in issue. 
ToolGen wins court approval to patent gene editing technology
South Korean biotech ToolGen has won court approval to patent its genome editing technology CRISPR, after an earlier bid to protect its IP found the revolutionary technology was not patentable.