Matthew Darke

Video game maker Epic Games has attacked as “entirely contrived” the defence by Apple in closing submissions in a Federal Court trial of its landmark competition case, pointing to the tech giant’s lack of evidence, including from CEO Tim Cook.

Lendlease has hit back at a lawsuit by a former Greenwoods & Freehills partner who alleged he was sacked for complaining about the company’s “aggressive taxation position”, claiming the partner reached out after he left the firm welcoming the chance to work with the company again.

While it was unfair for a judge to pick Gilbert + Tobin to run a class action against Jaguar Land Rover on the condition that it lower its funding rate, the judge was entitled to consider the law firm’s experience in a similar case against Toyota, an appeals court has said in its reasons. 

A decision awarding carriage to Gilbert + Tobin in a class action against Jaguar Land Rover on the condition that it lower its funding rate lacked procedural fairness, the Full Court has found, prompting the firm to team up with its competitor to run the case. 

AMP has lost its bid for soft class closure in a class action over allegedly excessive superannuation fees, with a judge finding the court should exercise “real caution” when class closure is opposed by the applicant. 

A judge has refused to redact a judgment signing off on the discontinuance of several product claims in a class action against three AMP subsidiaries after the applicant failed to gather the required evidence, saying it was not enough that the reasons “may be an embarrassment to people who commenced the proceeding”. 

Epic Games’ case alleging Google ran its Play Store anti-competitively is “significantly more ambitious” than the Fortnite game maker’s claims against Apple, according to the search giant, which says its restraints are “more flexible and less draconian” than the iPhone maker’s.

Hitting back at claims that its App Store stifles competition, Apple has told a trial that app developers have myriad ways of maximising profits without paying it a commission, noting Epic Games made US$3.8 billion from in-game currency V-Bucks in 2021.

Google has criticised two competition class actions which piggyback on claims brought by Fornite developer Epic Games as “opportunistic”, but counsel for the class actions told a court the suits on behalf of more than 15 million group members were in the public interest.

A judge overseeing a landmark competition case against Apple and Google has questioned whether Apple’s US lawyers wrongly used court submissions in Australia to put pressure on Epic Games in Europe and justify temporarily removing its developer account.