A law firm running underpayments class actions against Coles and Woolworths has sought orders forcing them to hand over contact details for key workers in the Fair Work Ombudsman’s parallel cases, which the supermarket giants lashed as likely to “cause chaos” in the proceedings.
A judge has found Shenzhen-based based radio manufacturer Hytera engaged in “substantial industrial theft” by appropriating Motorola’s source code for its digital mobile radios and should be on the hook for additional damages for “flagrantly” infringing Motorola’s copyright.
A law firm has dropped plans to bring a second set of class actions alleging Apple and Google engaged in anti-competitive conduct in operating their app stores, but will act as an “agent” for the first-to-file firm.
A judge overseeing the Montara oil spill class action has found the Federal Court’s broad discretion under the class action regime is “outflanked” by the need to give group members a chance to opt out. But resolving that question on Thursday — which has divided the courts — caused a further wrinkle ahead of a hearing to weigh a settlement in the case.
In one of the year’s biggest class action settlements, PTTEP Australasia has agreed to pay $192.5 million to settle a representative action over a 2009 oil spill that affected 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers.
Apple has foreshadowed a challenge in the event two law firms seek to work together on a consolidated class action that alleges both Apple and Google engaged in anti-competitive conduct in operating their app stores.
In a boost to shareholder class actions, the High Court has dismissed an application by engineering services firm Worley to appeal a finding that companies should disclose to the market forecasts that ought reasonably to have been held.
A judge has refused a bid by manufacturer Howden to use an expert report before IP Australia in a dispute accusing rival Minetek of misappropriating confidential information for an industrial fan patent, saying it was “wasteful” when a similar dispute was already before the court.
A former Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills partner wants the Full Court to decide whether whistleblower protections apply retrospectively in a $13 million suit alleging he was sacked for complaining about the tax avoidance strategy of construction giant Lendlease.
The High Court will take up Meta’s challenge to the privacy commissioner’s case over the Cambridge Analytica data breach, giving the court the chance to rule on the jurisdictional reach of Australian regulators in their pursuit of US tech giants.