Pacific National has defended a decision by a judge to accept an undertaking and rule against the ACCC in its competition case over the rail operator’s acquisition of a major freight terminal in Queensland, saying the ruling was structured with “commendable judicial economy”.
The judge who dismissed the ACCC’s challenge to Pacific National’s acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland had no power to accept an undertaking by the rail operator as an answer to the competition regulator’s case, an appeals court has been told.
A Melbourne-based craft brewery has had its ‘Urban Ale’ trade mark cancelled, with a judge finding other beer makers might want to use the words to describe their products and that cancelling the mark would be in the public interest.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s case alleging STA Travel hit customers with $1 million in hidden fees and commissions through an add-on that purported to cover the cost of flight changes will go straight to a penalties hearing after the student travel agent made admissions.
A US communications infrastructure company has filed a patent lawsuit against the Australian arm of French energy tech giant Schneider Electric, which is accused of flagrant infringement with the sale of one of its Clipsal electric socket products.
The liquidators of Melbourne-based forex trader Berndale Capital have filed examination proceedings in the Federal Court seeking to question the company’s former CEO and its other directors.
The Full Federal Court has provided clarity around additional damages in patent cases by reducing the penalties liable to be paid by an Australian fencing and gate manufacturer found to have infringed a rival’s patent for a fence base.
Defunct Dover Financial, which faces a penalty hearing next year after it was found to have misled customers with an inaptly titled ‘client protection policy’, can bring an application for evidence from the corporate regulator that the policy did not harm anyone.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has won its case against defunct financial advisor Dover Financial and its former director, who famously collapsed during the banking royal commission, with a judge saying the company engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct through its inaptly titled ‘client protection policy’.
A group of unsecured creditors of ‘Diamond Joe’ Gutnik’s mining firm Merlin Diamonds has launched a NSW Supreme Court bid to preserve their rights over security interests in the company as the clock ticks down to its impending liquidation.