A senior ACCC officer tried to dissuade ASIC from investigating alleged insider trading by JPMorgan because of fears it would “upset” the competition regulator’s criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, a court has heard.
Spurred by the Banksia class action scandal, the federal government has implemented new regulations requiring litigation funders to manage conflicts of interest that arise when the lawyers acting on a class action have a “material financial interest” in the funder that’s running it.
Virgin Australia has walked back part of its COVID-19 vaccination policy after the union representing aircraft maintenance engineers received hundred of complaints about the requirement that they provide their Individual Health Identifier as part of proof of their vaccination status.
Woodside Energy has been sued over its $16.5 billion Scarborough gas field development, with an environmental group alleging the project’s approval was invalid because the government of Western Australia failed to properly account for its impact on climate change.
The federal government is facing a class action over alleged biosecurity breaches that led to the 2016 outbreak of white spot disease in South-East Queensland, which decimated the region’s commercial prawn industry.
Canadian fast food restaurant Freshii is suing its Australian master franchiser for alleged “extensive failures” to pay what was owed under the franchising agreement and a decision to open eight restaurants in Australia without permission.
The CFMMEU and two of its officers have been hit with a $554,600 penalty for allegedly using the union’s “covert industrial muscle” to pressure a New South Wales crane company to bend to its bargaining demands.
A judge has granted a 21-day stay of a lawsuit brought by Acciona, a Spanish infrastructure company seeking to use COVID-19 as a reason to back out of its construction contract for the $696 million Kwinana waste-to-energy plant, and has warned the company it faces a difficult task to persuade the court of its case.
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has been hit with a class action for having “unfair” terms in its credit card contracts that allegedly gave the bank the right to charge account holders retrospective interest.
A senior ACCC officer was probed Tuesday on whether the competition regulator updated its guidelines for taking witness statements in July in response to criticism of investigators’ methods in the cartel probe over ANZ’s $2.5 billion share placement.
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