The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will have to face trial in a defamation lawsuit brought by a Queensland building and mortgage company over two media releases the corporate regulator issued in 2018 and 2019, after defeating a separate $10 million defamation case last year.
ASIC has launched a bid to gain access to legal advice provided by Ashurst to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in the regulator’s case over $35 million in allegedly illegal bank fees.
A judge has approved a $5 million penalty against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for overcharging customers $8 million in fees and interest on its agricultural products, despite previously expressing concerns that the penalty was “on the light side”.
A penalty hearing in the ACCC’s case against health booking company HealthEngine over misleading online reviews has been adjourned after a judge criticised the parties’ joint submissions as “deficient” for failing to explain how a proposed $2.9 million penalty had been arrived at.
Gaming giant Sony has agreed to pay a $3.5 million penalty to settle proceedings brought by the ACCC for making misleading consumer representations to purchasers of PlayStation games.
The failings that led to enforcement action against Westpac over 23 million alleged breaches of financial crime laws were ones of omission, and not the result of intentional wrongdoing, according to an independent report released by the bank on Thursday.
A judge has questioned ASIC’s proposed $5 million penalty against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, saying it was “on the light side” for the bank’s conduct in overcharging $8 million in fees on its agricultural products.
Bupa Aged Care has dropped a lawsuit challenging a directive by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission that it claimed overlapped with proceedings brought by the ACCC in which it was recently ordered to pay a $6 million penalty.
Former Dover Financial director Terry McMaster on Monday admitted to personally drafting a so-called client protection policy described by a judge as an “exercise in Orwellian doublespeak”, as the court heard evidence that the defunct financial firm ignored red flags raised by two law firms about the policy.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said competition by smaller airlines was essential ‘now, more than ever’ as the airline industry undergoes a major upheaval due to the coronavirus and the administration of Virgin Airlines, and vowed to continue its probe of Qantas’ 19.9 per cent stake in Alliance Airlines.