Catherine Bembrick

The court has rejected Mastercard’s bid to appeal an evidentiary win for the ACCC in the regulator’s misuse of market power case against the payments giant.

Mastercard is fighting an evidentiary win for the competition watchdog in a case alleging the payments giant misused its market power in deals with major retailers.

Aldi has slammed what it says is a novel copyright infringement case alleging the German grocery chain copied the “vibe” of a rival’s snack packaging. 

A Sydney law firm and its principal have been fined $14,400 for disobeying a Fair Work Ombudsman compliance notice issued for the alleged underpayment of a paralegal, with a judge saying the lawyer’s belief she did not owe any wages was “unreasoned and unreasonable”. 

A letter by King & Wood Mallesons was an unjustifiable threat of patent litigation against car accessories company Clearview, as was an announcement by the firm’s client MSA, but MSA’s director cannot be held liable as a joint tortfeasor under the Patents Act, a judge has found.

Global cryptocurrency and gambling website Stake.com is fighting to strike out claims in a lawsuit by Sydney-based online investment platform Stake over a planned Australian launch.

The Full Court has held a Sydney Trains driver who worked the morning after blowing over four times the legal limit is entitled to a rehearing, finding the Fair Work Commission failed to properly consider a section of its own founding legislation. 

Mastercard had a legitimate and pro-competitive reason for reaching agreements with major retailers to choose its network over Eftpos for debit card processing, a court was told Wednesday in the competition regulator’s misuse of market power case against the financial services behemoth.

The ACCC has taken Mastercard to court for allegedly misusing its market power by giving major retailers discounted interchange rates in exchange for them agreeing to process their debit card transactions through Mastercard instead of the cheaper eftpos network.

A judge hearing a $2 million dispute between a former tenured professor and the University of New South Wales has lamented the lengthy pleadings filed in Fair Work cases, saying “everything but the kitchen sink seems to be thrown in, without any discrimination”.