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.
A law firm has won its case seeking preliminary discovery from Essential Energy to pursue a possible class action against the state-owned electricity infrastructure company over the 2018 Tathra bushfire in NSW.
The Federal Government has blessed the ACCC’s request for an extended public inquiry into Google and Facebook as well as a separate probe into the tech giants’ advertising practices, arming the regulator with the power to collect information on the companies’ advertising and search algorithms.
The ACCC has raised concerns that the proposed tie-up of hardware store giant Bunnings Warehouse and family-owned Adelaide Tools and Oaklands Mower Centre will stifle competition.
Vodafone has won its case against the ACCC over its proposed merger with rival telecommunications company TPG, with a judge ruling the tie-up would not substantially lessen competition and had a real chance of becoming a “competitive force” against the two dominant players in the market, Telstra and Optus.
During another day of cross-examination in a criminal cartel case against ANZ and two investment banks, a key ACCC officer was accused of lying about his interrogation of a key cartel witness, with the officer insisting there was nothing “sinister” in his examination.
Australian Finance Group’s proposed acquistion of rival Connective Group has raised red flags for the competition regulator, which says the tie-up would create Australia’s largest mortgage aggregator and could squeeze smaller players out.
AMP will face a class action alleging its financial representatives pushed AMP inflated insurance policies onto 100,000 customers despite knowing that better policies could be found through other providers.
Volkswagen has appealed a record $125 million penalty handed down over its emissions cheating scandal by a judge who criticised a $75 million settlement agreement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as “manifestly inadequate”.