Commonwealth Bank of Australia and subsidiary CommSec have been hit with $10.34 million in penalties — the highest ever imposed in enforcement action by the workplace regulator — after admitting it underpaid thousands of employees more than $16 million.
The owner of womens’ networking group ‘Business Chicks’ has sued Fairfax over allegedly defamatory articles which she claims painted her as a hypocrite who unfairly fired a pregnant employee and fostered a toxic workplace culture.
In a case believed to be the first of its kind, the liquidators of boiler room trader Forex Capital Trading have sued ASIC, seeking to claw back over $20 million in fines and costs they says constituted unfair preference payments and should be distributed among the company’s out-of-pocket clients.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has raised concerns about the owner of realestate.com.au acquiring a national forms platform used by real estate agents, saying it could “significantly harm competitors”.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has taken two units of Paladin Group and one of its directors to court for allegedly raising more than $100 million from 258 investors without a financial services licence.
Maddocks has recruited a special counsel from Ashurst to head up its trade marks and brand protection practice.
A high-profile criminal judge in Victoria has stunned a courtroom with his announcement from the bench that he would resign after learning of a DPP complaint to the state’s judicial commission over his handling of a case linked to the Eastern Freeway accident that killed four police officers.
A judge has found that Lisa Wilkinson acted reasonably in ditching Network Ten’s legal team in a defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann, noting the “distrust” between the presenter and her former employer as well as other matters, including a retainer Ten’s solicitors had with The Australian newspaper.
The High Court has granted special to leave to a class action against Ford over allegedly PowerShift transmissions, agreeing to hear the case alongside two appeals in a class action against Toyota that deal with how reduction in value damages should be calculated under the Australian Consumer Law.
Mazda has been ordered to pay $11.5 million after a court found the Japanese car maker engaged in “appalling” customer service and misled nine purchasers of defective vehicles about their entitlement to a refund or replacement under the Australian Consumer Law.
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