Analysis

Whether Google is liable as a publisher for defamatory content that pops up in search engine results is the question before the High Court on Tuesday, and the answer could drastically alter the way large Internet companies do business.

It warned offenders, and then it won its first case. Now with the one-year anniversary of laws protecting small businesses from unfair contracts ticking over, expect the consumer regulator to take no prisoners, lawyers say.

Lawyers are advising large companies to look hard at their business plans to keep on the good side of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission now that the enforcer has a new arsenal to deploy.