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 Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is ācloseā to settling its case against office supply company Fujifilm over allegedly unfair contracts with small businesses, a court has heard.
The former CEO of failed electronics retailer Dick Smith should be held responsible for approving two dividend payments worth $28.5 million which the company could not afford to pay given it owed millions in unpaid bank loans and supplier debts, an appeals court has heard.Ā
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.
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.
The ACCC got what it wanted when IVF providers Virtus Health and Healius terminated a proposed $45 million merger, but it wasn’t a win, a judge has said in mostly denying the regulator’s bid to recover the costs of its court challenge to the deal.
The law firms and barristers who defended former Dick Smith directors in sprawling litigation over the failure of the electronics retailer earned close to $68 million in fees, a court has heard.
IVF company Virtus Health has withdrawn its offer to acquire rival Adora Fertility from Healius, citing the competition regulator’s opposition to the takeover.
National Australia Bank and HSBC should be “jointly and severally liable” to pay a portion of the costs of a failed case brought by Dick Smith’s receivers against the company’s former directors because the banks stood to gain financially if the lawsuit was successful, the NSW Supreme Court has heard.
Oil exploration company PTTEP has appealed a judge’s findings that oil that gushed from one of its wells in the Timor Sea in 2009 reached the coasts of Indonesian islands and damaged the crops of local seaweed farmers.