Advice from non-lawyers and “routed” through a legal practitioner at multidisciplinary partnership PricewaterhouseCoopers cannot be shielded under legal professional privilege, the Federal Court has found.
A notice issued to Pepsico demanding royalty withholding tax over bottling payments made by Schweppes correctly notified the soft drink giant of its tax liability, the Australian Taxation Office has said.
Peters Ice Cream has been hit with a $12 million penalty after admitting to entering an anti-competitive exclusive agreement for distribution of its single serve ice creams to service stations and convenience stores across Australia.
A judge has rejected the Australian Taxation Office’s claim that legal professional privilege does not apply to any communications between PricewaterhouseCoopers and its client, meat processor JBS, but has found that many of the reviewed documents do not satisfy the test of privilege.
SingTel has been blocked from making $190,000 in tax deductions after the Australian Taxation Office won its Federal Court case against the Singaporean teleco over transfer pricing benefits related to the $14.2 billion acquisition of Optus.
While mostly prevailing in test cases over coverage for COVID-19 business interruption claims, Insurance Australia Group has asked the High Court to weigh in on what it says is a “radical” approach by an appeals court in the treatment of JobKeeper payments.
AMP has admitted to contraventions and will face a penalty in ASIC proceedings over fees-for-no-service conduct that allegedly led to upwards of $600,000 being unlawfully withdrawn from superannuation member accounts.
Another fight over privilege may be on the cards in a shareholder class action over the collapse of the Hastie Group, with Deloitte flagging its partners may claim privilege over certain parts of the accounting giant’s evidence.
Noumi, formerly known as Freedom Foods, has agreed to pay $860,000 in Blue Diamond Growers’ costs as part of a $48 million settlement of a legal spat over a licensing deal to sell Almond Breeze milk, which the food maker unsuccessfully argued should be heard in Australia.
An appeals court challenge by a group of small businesses seeking coverage under business interruption insurance policies for losses flowing from COVID-19 restrictions has largely failed.