The applicants in the Radio Rentals class action have won access to the company’s excess layer insurance policies, amid concerns that group members’ losses from the allegedly misleading ‘Rent, Try, $1 Buy’ program could surpass $100 million.
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.
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.
Australian airline giant Qantas says it has no plans to decrease its 19.9 per cent stake in Alliance Airlines, after the competition watchdog expressed preliminary concerns the deal could substantially lessen competition.
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.