Fairfax Media has challenged a judge’s “gravely serious” suggestion that one of its journalists lied about a confidential source, during the first day of a two-day appeal hearing over a $280,000 defamation judgment awarded to Chinese-Australian businessman Chau Chak Wing.
National car repair franchise Ultra Tune has argued in a Full Federal Court appeal that a $1.07 million penalty in an ACCC case was “manifestly excessive” because it was based on unintentional breaches of the Franchising Code of Conduct that were caused by tardy accountants and auditors.
The ABC and Fairfax have lost their appeal seeking to revive a truth defense in a defamation case brought by Chinese businessman Dr Chau Chak Wing over a Four Corners program accusing him of espionage and links to the Chinese Communist Party.
A six-week trial set to start in October in the cartel case against mobility equipment provider Country Care Group has been vacated and rescheduled to next year, as the judge overseeing the case quipped that he was either the “canary or the guinea pig” in the landmark criminal proceeding.
A class action against the Federal Government’s Airservices has been dismissed after a “fatal” ruling that group members were not covered by enterprise agreements they argued had better terms than their own individually negotiated contracts.
Country Care Group has criticised the DPP for the “argumentative” tone of the notice setting out its criminal cartel case against the mobility equipment provider, and has secured an order for further clarity from prosecutors.
A Federal Court judge has apologised for “upsetting the applecart” and taking “too long” to publish his judgment in the consumer regulator’s case against GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis over packaging for now discontinued painkiller Osteo Gel.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has pared its criminal cartel case against Country Care Group and two individuals, cutting over 100 charges in an indictment that details two alleged cartel agreements the Australian mobility equipment provider entered into in relation to bids on NSW government tenders.
GlaxoSmithKline has defeated claims by the ACCC that revised packaging for its now-discontinued pain killer Osteo Gel misled consumers. The drug maker will face penalties for earlier violations it admitted to, but the court hinted the damages will be nowhere near the $6 million competitor Reckitt Benckiser faced in a similar case.
The consumer regulator wants a court to throw out Ultra Tune’s appeal of a $2.6 million penalty after the national car repair franchise filed its challenge more than a month late because its lawyers “miscalculated” the deadline.