In a stunning reversal, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution has dropped all criminal cartel charges against two investment banks and four individuals in relation to a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, four years after the charges were brought following an allegedly questionable investigation by the ACCC.
A class action against Irish insurer Zurich Insurance Plc by unit owners of the defective New Zealand-based Victopia Apartments can proceed in Australia after the NSW Supreme Court ruled the case could not be filed elsewhere.
The High Court has rejected Volkswagen’s special leave application to challenge a record $125 million penalty for selling cars with a defeat device that allowed them to cheat on emissions tests.
A judge has thrown out an urgent bid by Australian religious leaders for a temporary exemption from COVID-19 lockdown orders in NSW and Victoria to observe upcoming religious holidays, saying granting the injunction may lead to deaths.
A judge has ordered the ACCC to pay the State of NSW’s costs in its failed proceeding against NSW Ports, finding that even though the consumer watchdog did not initially sue the state government that it was a “necessary and proper” party to the case.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has appealed a judge’s decision throwing out its competition case over an agreement for the privatisation of two NSW ports, calling the case “a matter of significance for the Australian economy”.
The ACCC’s claim that NSW Ports stymied competition when it signed a 50-year agreement with the state to be compensated if the Port of Newcastle built a container terminal was based on “mere speculative hopes”, a judge found in tossing the competition watchdog’s regulatory action.
The ACCC has lost its regulatory action against NSW Ports alleging a 50-year agreement with the state, signed when Port Botany and Port Kembla were privatised in 2013, was anti-competitive.
Volkswagen has asked the High Court to throw out a a landmark $125 million penalty over its emissions cheating scandal, the highest ever handed down in Australia for consumer law violations.
The judge overseeing a conflicted remuneration class action against Suncorp has locked in a trial date for May next year over the protests of the applicants, saying it was “not a good look” for class actions to “hang” around.