Companies

A "striking" 8,600 emails passed between Seven’s commercial director and Ben Roberts-Smith’s legal team, suggesting the media company was actively involved in the unsuccessful defamation case, Fairfax has argued as it seeks significant defence costs.

A judge has ordered Meta to pay a $20 million penalty for misleading consumers by representing that its discontinued Onavo Protect mobile app would keep users’ personal activity data private, when in fact it was being collected for commercial use.

A judge has found that a case brought by the liquidators of investment firm Linchpin Capital against auditors Grant Thornton and Moore Stephens for signing off on the compliance plan for a registered fund that allegedly misused investor money has legs.

Shine Lawyers’ bid to recoup "exorbitant" interest on a loan it took out to run pelvic mesh class actions against Johnson & Johnson has raised new ethical dilemmas beyond the usual "sweaty palms and huge vexation" in most group proceedings, a judge has said.

The competition regulator has delayed its final decision on whether to approve ANZ's $4.9 billion acquisition of Queensland-based Suncorp, after expressing worries the tie-up could stifle the growth of smaller banks.

A judge has hit former Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen with costs, after finding he breached a non-disparagement clause in an agreement with the broadcaster by criticising his old employer in an article written for The Australian.

Seven Network and law firms Herbert Smith Freehills and Addisons are fighting Fairfax’s bid for communications relating to Ben Roberts-Smith’s unsuccessful defamation case, as the publisher seeks its significant defence costs. 

A PricewaterhouseCoopers partner who is suing the accounting firm for giving him the boot over a tax leaks scandal has won an interim injunction restraining the board of partners from forcing him to leave before his case is heard.

The ACCC has raised concerns about Coles plans to acquire milk processing plants from Saputo, with the regulator saying the transaction -- marking the first time a supermarket chain has ventured into the processing market -- would be a “major structural change”.

Senior EY partners have condemned PwC and attempted to distance the firm from the scandal that has rocked the industry, but its cleanskin claims were met with scepticism by senators, who questioned the failure to provide EY’s partnership deed and remuneration details.