ASIC has lost a case accusing the Commonwealth Bank of Australia of hitting customers with $55 million in unauthorised fees, with a judge finding that nearly 1 million customers charged the fees should have known that even banks “sometimes make mistakes”.
A judge has hit Alkaloids of Australia with a nearly $2 million penalty for engaging in cartel conduct and sentenced its former export manager to a term of imprisonment for his involvement in fixing prices for a key chemical in anti-spasmodic drug Buscopan.
Federal prosecutors pursuing a case against Members Equity have lost an appeal of a ruling that threw out half the charges against the direct bank as time barred, with an appeals court finding the ASIC Act imposes a hard deadline for bringing a criminal case of misleading or deceptive conduct.
Payday lenders BHF Solutions and Cigno are fighting ASIC’s bid for an injunction barring them from breaching consumer credit laws, with BHF claiming it should not be exposed to contempt.
A judge has cut at least $170,000 from the fees sought by a law firm running a class action on behalf of Drakes Supermarkets store managers who were allegedly underpaid — the same firm that saw its fees reduced in two similar class actions.
The judge whose ruling against the legal team behind the Banksia class action fraud helped redeem the battered reputation of the civil justice system may be asked to disqualify himself from the final fight in the drawn out case.
Automotive electronics company Directed Electronics has largely prevailed in a five-year-old lawsuit alleging a former manager misappropriated company information and reaped $3.6 million in commissions through a secret side agreement with South Korean giant Hanhwa.
A inquiry into former prime minister Scott Morrison’s appointment as shadow minister of five government portfolios has found the secret appointments “fundamentally undermined” the principles of responsible government.
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.
The lead applicant in a class action on behalf of investors who sank $12.3 million into an allegedly fraudulent sports betting scheme run by convicted conman Peter Foster may drop the case after a partner in the scheme filed for bankruptcy.