Companies

The ACCC has accepted undertakings from Telstra and Optus not to renew agreements requiring them to pre-install Google apps on Android devices as part of its competition probe into Google.

ANZ has been hit with a sanction by the Banking Code Compliance Committee for failing to stop or refund fees charged to deceased estates after customer deaths, with the bank to pay over $3.2 million to impacted estates. 

Nine will pay $3 million to settle a class action over its coverage of litigation related to the 2004 Palm Island riots, it has been revealed, after the class action failed to suppress the settlement sum.

Despite arguing for suppression as a means only to successful mediation, Westpac now wants a settled employment case brought by an executive kept under lock and key. And in a worrying sign the Federal Court may have lost sight of the importance of open justice, a judge has indicated she would entertain an order that the suit never see the light of day.

In a landmark competition case, Apple has told the Federal Court that Epic Games and other developers should not be allowed to “freeride” on the resources and user base the tech giant has “spent many billions” to develop. 

Network Ten has won $2 million in costs against Bruce Lehrmann in his failed defamation case over the broadcaster’s coverage of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations, after agreeing to a substantial haircut on its $3.7 million legal bill.

Five years after it was first hit with a competition case by Dialogue Consulting, Meta has filed a cross-claim against the Melbourne social media company, alleging it collects and stores Instagram user login credentials and instructs clients to provide inaccurate information to the platform.

Westpac has won its case against the owner of a fruit stand in Sydney’s Flemington Markets over a fraudulent scheme perpetrated using a $15 million invoice discounting facility provided by the bank.

A judge has rejected Samsung Bioepis’ bid to discover research and development documents from Pfizer as it seeks to invalidate the drug giant’s patent for its blockbuster autoimmune drug Enbrel, agreeing with Pfizer that it may be “no more than an exercise in fishing”.

In a loss for the Australian Taxation Office, the Full Federal Court has found that payments made by Asahi Breweries-owned Schweppes to PepsiCo under agreements to sell brands such as Pepsi and Mountain Dew in Australia were not subject to a royalty withholding tax.