Telstra is facing the second highest penalty ever imposed under consumer law for signing up Indigenous customers to post-paid mobile plans, with the ACCC alleging the telco exploited social and cultural vulnerabilities and caused “severe” financial hardship and distress, with one customer scared they would be incarcerated for not paying up.
Telstra has lost an appeal in a case brought by Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane city councils over a planned upgrade of its payphone network across Australia, with an appeals court pointing to an “apparent paradox” in the telco’s claim it did not need planning permits to install its next generation digital phone booths.
Telstra has suffered a defeat in its lawsuit accusing competitor Singtel Optus of violating consumer laws with ads claiming it is “covering more of Australia than ever before”, with a judge calling Telstra’s allegations that the ads implied a comparison with other telcos “strained and fanciful”.
An upcoming legal battle over whether counterclaims can be brought against non-party group members in a class action against a unit of recruiter Tandem could hamper bookbuilding efforts by making class actions less attractive to group members, an expert has told Lawyerly.
A subsidiary of workforce management company Tandem, which contracts with Telstra and Optus, has foreshadowed future cross-claims against group members who claim they were misclassified as contractors and denied employment benefits.
Communications and technical services company BSA Limited has slammed as “opportunistic” an employment class action by allegedly underpaid technicians, saying the media was informed of the proceedings before it was.
A judge has found that Hytera Communications cannot “repackage” evidence given by one of its deputy directors to avoid rules about opinion evidence while defending a copyright infringement case by Motorola Solutions.
Counselling app Lyf is suing smartphone maker Mintt for allegedly infringing on a trade mark it owns for the universal OK hand gesture, saying Mintt’s logo is substantially identical to Lyf’s registered mark.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has come up short in its challenge to a ruling that dismissed its case against TPG over contract terms that allowed the internet provider to keep customers’ unused prepaid funds on phone or internet plans.
Telstra has filed a lawsuit accusing Singtel Optus of breaching the Australia Consumer Law through ads that claim it is “covering more of Australia than ever before”.