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Counsel for John Barilaro on Tuesday detailed the online abuse his lawyers faced in acting in a defamation suit over videos posted by commentator Jordan Shanks, as the court heard YouTube owner Google has abandoned its last line of defence in the case.

Former deputy premier of NSW John Barilaro considered “harming himself” after videos were posted by YouTuber Jordan Shanks as part of a “vile and particularly racist smear campaign” facilitated by Google, a court has heard.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is considering whether new laws are needed to rein in Google, Apple and Facebook, including rules to curb self-preferencing conduct and strengthen the merger review framework.

Google has failed in its bid to stay a competition lawsuit brought by Epic Games, after failing to show that the Fortnite game maker would not be disadvantaged if the case were heard in California instead.

Google has argued there would be a “devastating” effect on the internet if the High Court upholds a judgment awarded to gangland lawyer George Defteros that found the tech giant liable for linking to an allegedly defamatory article.

The High Court has granted Google special leave to challenge a $40,000 defamation judgment awarded to gangland lawyer George Defteros, with the search giant arguing it should not be held liable for a “mere hyperlink” to an article.

Apple has reached the end of the line in its attempts to move a competition dispute with Fortnite game maker Epic Games to California, with the High Court denying the tech company’s special leave application to appeal a judgment that found there were “strong reasons” for keeping the matter in Australia.

Apple and Google’s legal woes in Australia are set to worsen, with a leading class action firm preparing to file class actions against the Silicon Valley giants for alleged competition and consumer law violations.

Google has hit back at the ACCC’s case accusing it of misleading users about a change to its privacy policy, saying laws against misleading and deceptive conduct do not apply to those who did not read the notification about the change.

A judge said he “gagged” at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s proposed $5 million pecuniary penalty in its case against specialist workplace relations company Employsure over six misleading Google ads.