The corporate watchdog’s dim view of proposals to regulate litigation funders got a mixed reaction from big players in the industry Thursday, with its position supported by foreign funders but frowned on by at least one home-grown firm.
A native title challenge to Adani Mining’s controversial $16 billion development of the Carmichael coal mine in Queensland has been revived, with a group of Indigenous Australians appealing a ruling that tossed their case.
Meriton has withdrawn its appeal of a ruling that fined the property manager $3 million for manipulating bad reviews on TripAdvisor.
Litigation funders should not be regulated by ASIC but by the courts, the corporate watchdog has told the Australian Law Reform Commission in response to proposals to overhaul the class action regime and subject funders to licensing requirements.
A subsidiary of building materials giant Boral was fined $30,000 Wednesday after threatening to sack its entire workforce for voting down proposed changes to an enterprise agreement to comply with the building watchdog’s code.
Accounting giant Deloitte is digging in for a fight over a court order to produce documents to a shareholder class over the firm’s auditing of collapsed engineering company Hastie Group, saying partners forced to hand over the files don’t have access to them.
Mortgage aggregator Connective Group has lost an appeal of a ruling that gave the greenlight to a shareholder’s derivative lawsuit against company directors and Macquarie Bank over the sale of 25 percent of the business to the bank.
An international IP dispute between the Royal Australian Mint and its Canadian counterpart over a patent for printed commemorative coins has settled, three months after Australia revealed its “knockout claim” in the case.
The $92 million payout to two funders that financed the recently settled S&P Global class actions shows the need for continued scrutiny of litigation funding agreements, experts say, but whether it is a sign of windfalls to come or is a ghost of commission’s past is another question.
OPSM owner Luxottica has agreed to make its franchise system more transparent after an investigation by the consumer watchdog found the eyewear giant’s disclosures weren’t up to scratch.