While the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has set out to rein in the market power of Google and Facebook, the sweeping proposals in the regulator’s final digital platforms report would affect a large number of businesses and could have a detrimental effect on smaller companies and innovation, lawyers say.
Japanese shipping company K-Line has been hit with a $34.5 million penalty for criminal cartel conduct, the largest consumer criminal fine in Australian history.
Australia’s largest potato wholesaler Mitolo Group will pay a penalty of $240,000 to resolve the consumer regulator’s case alleging its contracts with growers were unfair.
The important decision by the Full Court of the Federal Court in Calidad Pty Ltd v Seiko Epson Corporation clarifies the position on an area of law that, surprisingly, is still developing in Australia, namely the scope of the implied licence issuing from the sale of a patented product, writes Duncan Longstaff and Roshan Evans of Shelston IP.
Former Tennis Australia director Harold Mitchell has told a court that the corporate regulator had to be dragged “kicking and screaming” to produce documents in its enforcement action over alleged breaches of directorial duties involving negotiations for the Australian Open broadcast rights.
A judge has warned the parties in The Cosmetic Institute class action over allegedly botched breast implants to ensure group members’ rights are prioritised, following a push for an early class closure amid doctor-patient confidentiality concerns.
The Supreme Court of Victoria has signed off on a $1.2 million settlement of a class action brought on behalf of hundreds of residents and businesses that allegedly suffered loss or injury in a 2017 fire at the Coolaroo recycling plant in Victoria.
Car giant Toyota is facing a class action seeking compensation on behalf of around 250,000 vehicle owners who allegedly suffered loss from faulty diesel filters in the automaker’s Hilux, Fortuner and Prado diesel model cars.
US biotechnology firm Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has lost its opposition to a proposed patent by UK biopharmaceutical company Kymab for a method of producing an animal with part-human DNA.
Lawyers for former Vocation CEO Mark Hutchinson say the corporate regulator is “plucking numbers out of the air” in its bid to secure disqualifications of up to eight years against the former executives who breached their directors’ duties in relation to the collapsed education provider.