The writing may be on the wall for common fund orders in class actions that put all unregistered group members on the hook for a litigation funder’s commission, after the High Court agreed Wednesday to take up landmark challenges by Westpac and BMW, experts say.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has dropped its probe into Blue Sky over possible violations of its continuous disclosure obligations, but the fund manager still faces three active shareholder class action investigations.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has suffered a major defeat in its challenge to Pacific National’s proposed $205 million acquisition of competitor Aurizon’s Queensland freight terminal, with a judge saying he was appeased by a last-minute promise from Pacific that it would not block third parties from accessing the terminal.
Sexual harassment is “alarmingly commonplace” in Australian law firms, with almost half of all women in the legal profession experiencing harassment at least once, a survey of lawyers in 135 countries has found.
The High Court has upheld an appeal by a mortgage broker with a history of run-ins with the law, finding that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal could not take spent convictions into account when reviewing ASIC ban orders.
IP Australia has rejected an application by Huawei Technologies to register the trade mark Nova after a challenge by radio giant Nova Entertainment, with a delegate finding the Chinese telecommunications company had failed to prove its intention to use the mark.
US biotechnology company ICOS has settled a dispute with Australian-based Arrow Pharma over the patents for erectile dysfunction drug Cialis, less than 12 months after a court upheld the validity of the patents in a separate case.
The High Court has granted applications by Westpac and BMW to weigh in on the validity of common fund orders made in class actions, a decision that could have major ramifications for the way representative proceedings are funded.
Irrigators in Australia’s South East have launched a class action against the Murray-Darling Basin Authority claiming its mismanagement of the river system caused up to $830 million in losses.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission wants ASX-listed diamond mining company Merlin Diamonds wound up, expressing concerns about the company’s solvency and over $13 million in loans made to companies associated with Merlin’s director, Joseph Gutnick, without shareholder approval.
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