Industries

International Capital Markets may soon face a third class action, a court has heard, as the first two class actions to be filed against the Sydney-based online broker over risky contracts for difference mull consolidation. 

A judge has dismissed Aldi’s bid to have a class action alleging it underpaid Australian workers to the tune of $150 million summarily dismissed, saying the application was “not a suitable vehicle” to determine factual issues including whether a $17 million remediation nullifies the class action’s claims. 

Digital currency exchange Block Earner needed a licence to offer its crypto-backed Earner product, a court has found in one of the first decisions on the application of financial services law to crypto investments.

A judge has held that there could be favourable costs consequences for Carnival if its rejected $15 million settlement offer in the Ruby Princess class action turns out to be more generous than the ultimate damages award, departing from a previous ruling that so-called Calderbank offers do not operate in group proceedings. 

Two marine freight companies have lost a fight with a local council which refused to allow it to unload 3,000 head of cattle at Apollo Bay in Victoria, with a judge finding they were “the architects of their own misfortune” for striking a deal with a beef company before securing permission to berth at the port. 

South Korean biosimilars company Samsung Bioepis has sued Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Biotech to invalidate two patents for Crohn’s disease drug Stelara, after reaching a licencing agreement over the medicine in the US.

Health law practitioners are grappling with “snowballing awards” in claims over psychiatric injuries, according to Sparke Helmore’s new health law partner. 

A Melbourne orthopaedic clinic has lost its bid to register the name ‘Melbourne Bone and Joint Clinic’ as a trade mark, with a judge finding the phrase was just an ordinary combination of words. 

Online broker International Capital Markets has been hit with a second class action for selling “excessively risky” derivative products known as contracts for difference to retail investors. 

Car repair giant AMA Group has resolved its case against three former executives that sought to block them from poaching staff and customers for competing business Drive Group.