The Australian Council of Trade Unions and seven other unions have launched legal action on behalf of 27,000 workers over an alleged “sham” bonus scheme designed to pressure staff into accepting a future enterprise agreement.
Global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has successfully defended the patent for its sedative drug Precedex against a validity challenge, a big win for the drug maker after a US court found last year that its patents for a ready-to-use version of the drug were invalid for obviousness.
ANZ Bank has secured a stay of the corporate cop’s civil penalties proceeding over disclosures related to its $2.5 billion equity capital raising while it fights criminal cartel charges related to the controversial share placement.
Shareholders of troubled sandalwood producer Quintis who are eligible group members in two consolidated class actions against the company can bet on which of the two cases will give them the best returns, if any, and the Federal Court has appointed an independent lawyer to help them make the choice.
Failed winemaker David James has launched a fresh bid to overturn a $14 million judgment for ANZ against him, telling a court he is still pursuing the bank after six years because the dispute has “taken his life’s work”.
The approval of a settlement between the liquidators of failed fund manager Equititrust and auditor KPMG has been postponed to allow time to notify creditors and unitholders that they won’t see a cent, an outcome the judge called “a long way from litigation in any traditional sense”.
Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has followed through on its threat to appeal a high stakes ruling that shut down its shareholder class action against AMP, along with two competing cases, after a two-day beauty parade that saw rival firm Maurice Blackburn take the prize.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has asked a court to impose penalties of up to $36 million on an AMP subsidiary for failing to take reasonable steps to stop its representatives from churning life insurance policies.
Israeli drug giant Teva and German drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim have settled their dispute over a patented capsule used to deliver the medicine in Boehringer’s top-selling inhaler Spiriva.
ANZ Bank will not pay a cent to franchisees in its settlement of two class actions that allege the bank breached its responsible lending obligations and engaged in unconscionable conduct by giving loans to purchasers of 7-Eleven franchises.