Mazda has been ordered to pay $11.5 million after a court found the Japanese car maker engaged in “appalling” customer service and misled nine purchasers of defective vehicles about their entitlement to a refund or replacement under the Australian Consumer Law.
Two marine freight companies have lost a fight with a local council which refused to allow it to unload 3,000 head of cattle at Apollo Bay in Victoria, with a judge finding they were “the architects of their own misfortune” for striking a deal with a beef company before securing permission to berth at the port.
Asylum seekers who were put in immigration detention in South Australia can transfer their cases to the Federal Court to run their claims as a class action accusing the federal government of negligence and unlawful detention.
A Melbourne orthopaedic clinic has lost its bid to register the name ‘Melbourne Bone and Joint Clinic’ as a trade mark, with a judge finding the phrase was just an ordinary combination of words.
A judge has signed off on a 27.5 per cent group costs order in a consolidated shareholder class action against Medibank over a cyberattack that affected 10 million customers, noting the “significant risk” taken on by the two plaintiff law firms running the action.
A judge has signed off on a bill that brings the total settlement administration costs in a class action against Johnson & Johnson unit De Puy to over $13 million, amid a push by some judges to open the settlement administration gig up to competition.
Russia’s largest aluminium producer UC Rusal has lost a breach of contract lawsuit brought against six Rio Tinto companies after they refused to deliver alumina under a joint venture agreement on the basis that doing so would cause them to run afoul of export sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine.
A judge has reluctantly hit Westpac with a $1.8 million penalty after the bank admitted to unconscionable conduct when trading on the morning of a $16 billion deal to privatise electricity provider Ausgrid, saying it was the maximum fine allowed under the relevant law.
The current owners of vitamin giant Nature’s Care have won an urgent injunction against the company’s founding family, after a judge said it appeared they were trying to regain control of the corporate group.
A judge has dismissed a franchisee class action against the Hog’s Breath Cafe restaurant chain after the lead applicants failed to hand over $1.23 million in security for costs.