ASIC and other government regulators bringing enforcement action in the docket of one Federal Court judge must abide by a strict new protocol to prevent a repeat of the corporate watchdog’s “wait and see” strategy in a case against ex-Murray Goulburn directors that came close, the judge said, to bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.
NSW Ports Operations has denied claims that an agreement for the privatisation of its subsidiaries Port Botany and Port Kembla stymied competition, describing the allegations made by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as “slight or hypothetical”.
A judge has agreed to postpone a trial against logistics provider GetSwift until next year when a class action and a lawsuit by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission related to the company’s disclosures will be heard consecutively rather than concurrently.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission wants to add GetSwift’s former inhouse lawyer as a respondent in its enforcement action against the logistics company, as debate rages over whether a class action against the company should be postponed.
NSW Ports has criticised the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for expecting the company to file a defence to the regulator’s allegations of anti-competitive conduct from a concise statement it panned as “vague”.