Bail conditions have been set for a former BlueScope Steel executive charged with obstructing an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission criminal cartel probe into the steel company, the first criminal charges ever brought against an individual in relation to an ACCC investigation.
The competition regulator has been probing alleged cartel conduct by steel giant Bluescope for a number of years, counsel for the company told a court Friday as it sought transcripts of the watchdog’s compulsory interviews of witnesses and asked for five months to put on a defence.
UGL shareholders that signed up to a class action against the engineering company over disclosures related to its Ichthys power plant contract will get less than half of an $18 million settlement, even after the litigation funder takes a steep cut to its 30 per cent commission and the plaintiff’s firm caps its fees.
A subpoena issued by the daughter of mining magnate Gina Rinehart seeking documents from Corrs Chambers Westgarth, the law firm representing her mother’s company, has been set aside by a judge, who found the material had no forensic purpose in the family’s long-running fight over a $5 billion trust.
A litigation funder is planning to challenge a landmark Federal Court ruling that found for the first time that funders can be ordered to pay security for costs in Fair Work class actions.
Mining magnate Andrew Forest’s Fortescue Metals is facing a possible compensation claim after losing its appeal of a ruling that granted native title to to the Yinjibarndi people over a large section of land in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The applicant in a shareholder class action against Iluka Resources can put up security for the company’s legal costs by way of two insurance deeds of indemnity, but a bid to use the deeds to replace the $1.25 million it earlier paid in cash security has failed.
The competition regulator has signed off on Viva Energy’s proposed acquisition of the remaining 50 per cent of Liberty Oil’s wholesale business, saying the deal was not likely to substantially likely to lessen competition in the wholesale fuel market.
The judge overseeing a class action against mineral sands producer Iluka Resources has slammed the submissions from both sides over a bid for an extra $2.6 million in security for costs, calling them “completely out of control” and “totally out of proportion”.
A landmark ruling has found judges have the power to order security against litigation funders backing Fair Work class actions, in a decision that could change the landscape of representative proceedings.