The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has come up short again in its challenge to Pacific National’s $205 million acquisition of competitor Aurizon’s Queensland freight terminal, with a judge shooting down the regulator’s request for a variation of Pacific’s undertaking that it will not block third parties from accessing the terminal.
The long-running dispute between Kraft Foods and Bega over who owns the rights to use the signature Kraft peanut butter trade dress in Australia is not over, with Kraft appealing a ruling that found Bega had acquired the rights to the trade dress when it purchased Kraft unit Mondelez’s Australian and New Zealand business in 2017.
A unit of banking giant Suncorp Group is facing a potential class action over superannuation fees and charges, adding to growing list of class actions expected to be filed in the wake of the banking royal commission over super fees.
US asset management firm State Street has dropped its trade mark case against superannuation fund HESTA over its Fearless Girl statue, after HESTA agreed to stop all marketing and promotion involving a replica of the famous New York statue.
The law firm running a shareholder class action against GetSwift confirmed it was looking at the events surrounding Tuesday’s trading halt by the Australian Stock Exchange but would not be amending its ongoing case against the logistics company in light of it.
Australian law firm Mills Oakley has established an IP practice in its Melbourne office, snatching a senior lawyer from rival K&L Gates, which is now set to lose five IP specialists in the space of almost two months.
The job of a senior Piper Alderman partner is in jeopardy after a court refused to extend an injunction preventing her from being ousted from the partnership while she battles a sex discrimination case against the firm.
A judge’s decision to pick Maurice Blackburn’s no win, no fee class action against AMP over three funded class actions puts the pressure on litigation funders, which will now face more competition from law firms prepared to go it alone, experts say. The ruling also shows the value courts place on funding arrangements that seek to maximise returns for class members, which means class action beauty parades are sure to get less ugly.
A ruling by a judge deciding a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against AMP is expected this week, a judgment significant not just because it is the first time a court in Australia has been asked to choose among so many competing representative cases.
ANZ has recruited seasoned class actions lawyer Ken Adams to be its next group general counsel as the bank faces two cases over a botched share placement and braces for the possibility of more litigation in the wake of the Banking Royal Commission.