The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has opened a formal review into whether Google’s $3 billion acquisition of fitness device company Fitbit will harm competition, including the potential impact of the search giant’s increased access to user data.
Medtronic owned Covidien and two other medical device manufacturers have been hit with a class action on behalf of thousands of women who claim to have suffered lifelong complications from the devices, the third class action over pelvic mesh implants brought in Australia.
The ACCC has revealed that it will bring at least four new competition cases this year, with chairman Rod Sims also promising that the regulator could pick up the pace when it comes to launching proceedings.
Two Geowash executives have appealed a ruling that found they were knowingly involved in the car wash franchisor’s unconscionable conduct in its dealings with franchisees.
The ACCC claims it was not required to prove Kimberly-Clark’s flushable wipes caused actual harm to sewers, as it challenges a ruling that disposed of its consumer law case against the personal care giant.
The ACCC has approved Hong Kong-based China Mengniu Dairy Company’s acquisition of Lion Dairy & Drinks, saying the deal was not likely to substantially lessen competition in the raw milk market.
Dam operator Seqwater will appeal its loss in a long-running class action over the 2011 Queensland floods that destroyed over 2,000 homes, a move derided by the lawyer for the flood victims, who called for “an end to the injustice” her clients have suffered.
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.
An ACCC officer who was heading up a team investigating alleged cartel conduct by ANZ Banking Group and three investment banks has admitted that the regulator may have made an ‘oversight’ in a letter of comfort offered to JPMorgan ahead of the bank’s immunity application in the case.