Andrew Barraclough

Hitting back at the regulator’s claims of dodgy sales promotions, Coles and Woolworths say price increases were the result of real cost pressures, and subsequent discounts were not illusory.

Coles and Woolworths have hit back at the ACCC’s claims they advertised “illusory” discounts, pointing the finger at inflation and higher supply costs.

BlueScope Steel is seeking to overturn a record $57.5 million penalty for engaging in attempted price-fixing with flat steel distributors, telling an appeals court that it was simply trying to make its competitors understand “it was in their interests to price differently”. 

Qantas will pay a $100 million penalty and another $20 million in compensation in a settlement of the ACCC’s so-called ghost flights case that includes an admission by the airline that it engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in selling tickets for cancelled flights.

A judge has ordered soft class closure ahead of mediation in a class action against five major banks over alleged foreign exchange rate-rigging, saying the applicant’s subjective view on what will assist mediation should not be imposed on the banks.

Qantas has hit back the ACCC’s argument that the airline failed to respond to key allegations in its ‘ghost flights’ case, telling the court it’s the regulator’s job to particularise its claims.

The ACCC has raised concerns over Qantas’ alleged failure to respond to claims in a blockbuster case against the airline over the sale of tickets on cancelled flights.

Citibank has argued group members should be asked to sign on to a class action accusing five major banks of entering a cartel agreement to rig foreign exchange rates before evidence is filed in the case, saying it was impossible to know how much the claims were worth. 

Five major banks including JPMorgan, Citibank and UBS have denied all wrongdoing in a class action accusing them of entering a cartel agreement to rig foreign exchange rates and argue the claims were brought out of time or are barred by settlements in overseas proceedings.

A judge has given the green light to amended pleadings in a class action accusing major banks of entering a cartel agreement to rig foreign exchange rates, bringing a two-year fight over the pleadings closer to resolution.