The competition regulator wants the High Court to hear its challenge to Pacific National’s $205 million acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland, saying the deal would entrench the rail freight carrier’s near monopoly on the east coast of Australia.
A former director of GetSwift has given evidence at trial in ASIC’s case against the logistics provider that the company drafted a correction to a misleading ASX announcement about a deal with fruit and milk delivery provider Fruit Box but never released it.
A judge has dismissed a defensive bid by ASIC to amend its case against GetSwift mid-trial, instead calling on “common sense” to be injected into the proceeding as the hearing enters its second week.
GetSwift “sat on” an announcement about a lucrative deal with US-based automotive sales and marketing firm N.A. Williams for more than three weeks, then leaked the news to the media before announcing it on the Australian Stock Exchange, ASIC has told the Federal Court on day two of a trial in the corporate regulator’s case against the logistics tech company.
Émails show the directors of logistics company GetSwift took a “deliberate approach” to inflating the company’s share price through a constant supply of positive ASX announcements about new multimillion-dollar contracts, ASIC said on the first day of a highly anticipated five-week trial.
Logistics company GetSwift and its directors have failed in a bid for a year-long delay of a trial scheduled to start next month in ASIC’s case alleging breaches of the Corporations Act, despite arguing that the procedural unfairness of a remote hearing gave the regulator a leg-up over the US-based company.
Virgin Australia’s administrators will not be responsible of any overpayments of the JobKeeper allowance, which is currently being claimed on behalf of thousands of the embattled airline’s employees.
The ACCC has been given the green light to use witness statements prepared during its criminal cartel investigation of BlueScope Steel in the civil penalty proceedings launched by the regulator, but a fight with the steel giant over the admissibility of the evidence still looms.
The administrators of Virgin Australia have been absolved of personal liability for the ongoing operation of the embattled airline on an unprecedented scale, with Australia’s airline duopoly and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic justifying the “extraordinarily wide” orders.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has won court approval to bring new claims against BlueScope Steel for allegedly seeking to induce competitor OneSteel to engage in cartel conduct.