New lawsuit

Three units of Perth-based builder BGC Housing Group have been hit with a class action on behalf of thousands of home owners who allege they have been harmed by lengthy construction delays.

ASIC has brought civil penalty proceedings against Chinese government-owned agri-business COFCO, alleging it manipulated the market for Eastern Australian wheat futures market contracts in 2022. 

An Australian YouTuber has been sued by a lithium battery company which asked him for “unbiased reviews” of its products, saying his videos raising concerns about the batteries are defamatory.

A class action has accused not for profit community legal service Knowmore Legal of breaching its duty of care and providing negligent advice to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse who settled their claims under the National Redress Scheme when they could have recovered more by taking their claims to court.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has brought proceedings against retailer The Good Guys, alleging it made misleading statements about store credit. 

The Australian Energy Regulator has filed proceedings against several units of Origin Energy, after they admitted to breaching life support obligations for 5,000 customers over three years, including deregistering or disconnecting premises where someone was receiving life support. 

Law firm HWL Ebsworth is facing a representative complaint filed with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner over a 2023 cyber attack, which allegedly compromised the data of 65 government agencies and affected NDIS participants. 

The Australian Communications and Media Authority says a coding error on a dormant website that went undetected for four years was behind a massive data breach that exposed the information of close to 10 million Optus customers, with the regulator saying the hack was “not highly sophisticated”. 

AMP’s former head of advice Jack Regan has filed proceedings against the owner of The Australian, Nationwide News, over a story he claims defamed him by alleging he misled ASIC over the charging of fees for no service. 

An energy company has taken the minister for climate change and energy to court for refusing to greenlight its Seadragon wind farm project, which would have placed up to 150 wind turbines in waters off the coast of Gippsland, Victoria.