Search giant Google may face a class action by disgruntled business owners seeking compensation for loss and damage they claim has been caused by anonymous negative online reviews.
The judge who dismissed the ACCC’s challenge to Pacific National’s acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland had no power to accept an undertaking by the rail operator as an answer to the competition regulator’s case, an appeals court has been told.
A former manager of Australian electronics automotive developer Directed Electronics OE has failed to block access to certain documents in a corporate theft case, despite the Federal Court finding they gave rise to a “real and appreciable risk” of civil or criminal prosecution against him.
Clive Palmer and his company Mineralogy have survived a High Court challenge by Hong-Kong based CITIC to a ruling that put it on the hook for at least $224 million in unpaid royalties from producton at the Sino Iro mine, but a related $297 million suit by Palmer against the Chinese conglomerate has flopped.
The High Court has declined two insurers’ request for review of a decision that left them on the hook for covering part of a $6 million class action settlement by Bank of Queensland.
An ACCC officer who was heading up a team investigating alleged cartel conduct by ANZ Banking Group and three investment banks has admitted that the regulator may have made an ‘oversight’ in a letter of comfort offered to JPMorgan ahead of the bank’s immunity application in the case.
The Federal Government has blessed the ACCC’s request for an extended public inquiry into Google and Facebook as well as a separate probe into the tech giants’ advertising practices, arming the regulator with the power to collect information on the companies’ advertising and search algorithms.
The ACCC has raised concerns that the proposed tie-up of hardware store giant Bunnings Warehouse and family-owned Adelaide Tools and Oaklands Mower Centre will stifle competition.
Former Bellamy’s Australia director Jan Cameron has been charged by prosecutors after an ASIC investigation over her alleged failure to disclose her substantial stake in the organic baby food company.
A Mexican restaurant franchise has settled a dispute with Taco Bell that will allow the fast food giant to move ahead with plans to set up shop in Victoria.