A judge’s decision to throw out a shareholder class action against engineering company Worley is a loss for plaintiffs lawyers and could result in fewer listed companies willing to settle cases alleging they breached their disclosure obligations, but the ruling is not likely to have a significant chilling effect on securities litigation.
Medical device maker Covidien has lost a bid to have the applicant in a product liability class action over allegedly defective pelvic mesh front $300,000 as security for its legal costs in the event it wins the case.
The maker of pain killer Maxigesic is taking its long-running battle with Nuromol manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser to an appeals court after a recent ruling that its advertising misled consumers by claiming Maxigesic provided better, faster and more effective pain relief than paracetamol or ibuprofen.
A judge has given the greenlight to AUSTRAC’s $1.3 billion penalty against Westpac over the bank’s 23 million breaches of money laundering and counter-terrorism laws, the biggest regulatory fine ever paid by an Australian company.
The Australian unit of French investment bank Société Générale must pay a $30,000 penalty after pleading guilty to four counts of breaching client money handling rules.
Real estate investment giant Cromwell Property Group will not get the court’s help in pursuing a case of “unlawful association” against its largest shareholder, Singapore-based ARA Group, which has made a $518 million hostile takeover bid, and the family of Chinese billionaire Gordon Tang.
A judge has sided in part with QBE Insurance and pared back a class action over allegedly worthless add-on insurance sold by ANZ to credit card and personal loan customers.
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Arnold Bloch Leibler seeking to use information from its legal work on Slater & Gordon’s $1.2 billion acquisition of UK firm Quindell to defend itself in a class action brought by the plaintiffs firm’s shareholders.
Crown Resorts is the target of an investigation by AUSTRAC’s enforcement team in connection with its dealings with high-risk customers at its Melbourne casino.
A history of serial offending by the CFMEU could be factored into a court’s finding on the gravity of later breaches of the Fair Work Act, but not to the extent that the union pays a disproportionate penalty, the Full Federal Court has found in a significant ruling that settles conflicting case law.