Companies that manipulate financial benchmarks will face specific civil and criminal penalties under changes to the law made by the government today, in the wake of $100 million in settlements by two of Australia’s largest banks last year over claims they manipulated the bank bill swap reference rate.
The Australian competition regulator has delayed its decision on the proposed $1.3 billion merger of dairy giant Saputo with Australian milk co-op Murray Goulburn to consider feedback from market participants.
Australian biotech company Holista Colltech has resolved litigation over ASX announcements that said it was collaborating with a Nobel Prize nominee to file a patent for the world’s first low-GI sugar.
CSIRO has won a challenge to an application for a mining patent filed by mining giant Rio Tinto, with an IP Australia delegate finding no patentable subject matter could be claimed.
A measure to add competition concerns to the mandate of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was formally introduced in the House on Wednesday.
Private follow-on actions for consumer law violations will be easier to bring under a new bill introduced in the House on Wednesday, a potential boon to class action lawyers in Australia.
A joint parliamentary report released today blasted consumer protections for life insurance as weak, and called for an expansion of consumer protection laws to the life insurance sector and stronger enforcement powers for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Reckitt Benckiser Australia has lost a bid for an interim ban on a commercial by rival Procter & Gamble that claims Fairy Platinum dishwashing detergent is better than RBA’s Finish Quantum detergent, with a judge ruling the scientific evidence backs up the claim.
Corrs Chambers Westgarth has filed a shareholder class action against GetSwift alleging it provided inadequate disclosures and misled investors with its overhyped announcements about business contracts, one month after Squire Patton Boggs brought a similar suit.
ATM provider Cardtronics has agreed to change its small business contract, after the Australia’s consumer regulator found some of the terms of the contract were unfair.