IVF company Virtus Health has withdrawn its offer to acquire rival Adora Fertility from Healius, citing the competition regulator’s opposition to the takeover.
A litigation funder has taken aim at a landmark judgment in an appeal of a ruling that found its funding arrangement with group members in a class action against Queensland energy suppliers was a managed investment scheme.
A “full-blooded carriage fight” is set down for next year between two competing class actions alleging dairy giant a2 Milk misled shareholders with an overly optimistic prediction of its infant formula sales.
A senior ACCC officer has been grilled on whether staff training on criminal cartel investigations was “inadequate” while the competition regulator ran a cartel probe into ANZ’s $2.5 billion share placement in 2016.
Swiss pharmaceutical company Biogen is considering a third patent infringement lawsuit against a drug maker to shield its monopoly in Australia for blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera from generic competition.
Union members who allegedly urged former Qantas workers to give misleading information to the Federal Court via a survey in a lawsuit brought on behalf of 2,000 stood-down ground staff may be called to explain themselves after a judge expressed concern over their conduct.
Coffee giant Vittoria has lost its bid to register the trade mark “Victoria Coffee”, with IP Australia finding the mark could prevent other businesses from honestly describing coffee products by referring to the state of Victoria.
More than 18 months after a split emerged among the courts, the Full Federal Court will weigh in on whether judges have power to shut out unregistered group members from a class action. But given the breadth of the question for the appeals court, the issue is unlikely to be resolved there.
A judge has ruled he will not consider a separate question on whether Acciona is barred from setting off any damages payable to Lendlease in a lawsuit over the $160 million sale of its engineering business.
The Full Court is set to examine whether the Federal Court has the power to make class closure orders prior to mediation, weighing on one of the biggest unanswered questions vexing the class action regime.