A court has tossed a case by the ACCC against Ramsay Health Care claiming that the global hospital group misused its market power by pressuring a group of doctors who planned to open their own day clinic.
Mining magnate Andrew Forest’s Fortescue Metals is facing a possible compensation claim after losing its appeal of a ruling that granted native title to to the Yinjibarndi people over a large section of land in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Publisher Pan Macmillan and nightclub magnate John Ibrahim have reached a $100,000 settlement in a defamation case brought by Sydney identity Thomas Domican over what a judge called a “fleeting reference” in Ibrahim’s autobiography.
A judge has thrown out the NRMA’s consumer case against the maritime union over its Sydney fast ferry campaign, ruling that a verdict in favour of the motoring body would have brought the “the entire field of industrial relations within the operation of consumer legislation”.
The NRMA’s bid to restrain the maritime union’s campaign over the safety and employment standards of Sydney’s fast ferry services on the grounds that it violates IP and consumer laws is set to be fast tracked after a judge noted the “significant” case could raise freedom of speech issues.
A Sydney-based law firm is planning to file a cross-claim seeking legal costs from five former clients it represented in an employment lawsuit against Westpac, who are accusing the firm of negligence in rejecting a $4.45 million settlement offer.
The trial in the ACCC’s case against hospital group Ramsay Health Care has doubled in length after the regulator made a late bid to enter as evidence a file note based on a sound recording of a meeting in which a Ramsay unit’s CEO allegedly made anti-competitive threats.
Ramsay Health Care has denied its conduct towards a group of surgeons seeking to open a rival clinic in Coffs Harbour, NSW was anti-competitive or a misuse of market power, telling the court on the first day of trial that the venture was doomed to fail.
The stakes will be high for the ACCC when the trial kicks off Monday in its case against Ramsay Health Care alleging the hospital giant misused its market power and engaged in exclusive dealing, after the competition regulator came up short in its last big misuse of market power case against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
Debt collector ACM Group has been hit with a $750,000 fine for engaging in unconscionable conduct by misleading, harassing and coercing two vulnerable customers while chasing unpaid debts.