The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has approved Coles’ planned acquisition of chilled meals supplier Jewel, saying the sale was better for competition than the liquidation of Jewel’s assets.
For the lawyers conducting the committal hearings in the criminal cartel case over ANZ’s $2.5 billion equity raising, the Sydney Downing Centre courtroom was already too close for comfort.
Six law firms are working on a consolidated trial of multiple class actions over the collapse of retailer Dick Smith, but when the trial opened in the NSW Supreme Court this week, a lone barrister appeared in court before Justice Michael Ball, amid a sea of empty bar tables. Most of the hearing’s participants joined through a virtual courtroom while members of the public were invited to watch the trial unfold on a YouTube live stream. Welcome to litigating in the age of the coronavirus.
Fairfax Media has failed in its appeal of a judgment that found the publisher defamed Chinese-Australian businessman Dr Chau Chak Wing in a Sydney Morning Herald article that linked him to an international bribery scandal.
BHP has failed in a bid to shut down a class action over the Fundao dam failure pending criminal proceedings in Brazil, with a judge ruling the mining giant would not be prejudiced if the case proceeded for now.
Two units of AMP have paid a $536,000 penalty for failing to report derivative transactions, with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission slamming the company for “serious inadequacies” in its reporting processes.
The corporate cop has brought legal proceedings against the Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management unit claiming it made misleading or deceptive statements to over 12,000 fund members during the transition to MySuper accounts.
The corporate watchdog has brought two post-Hayne Commission proceedings against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, alleging it upped the credit limit of a known problem gambler and overcharged more than $8 million in fees on its agricultural lending products.
Qantas Airways has repaid more than $7 million in underpayments and will make an additional $2 million in ‘apology’ payments to workers after self-reporting to the Fair Work Ombudsman that it incorrectly calculated the salary of hundreds of staff.
Westpac has been hit with another class action over alleged anti-money laundering breaches, teeing up a high-stakes beauty parade over which firm will lead the class action against the bank.