Justice David Yates

Consumer goods giants Proctor & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser have been urged by a court not to bury their dispute over marketing of a dishwashing tablet product under a mountain of competing performance tests.

A judge overseeing class actions against car makers Hyundai and Kia over alleged engine defects has dismissed the carmakers’ bid to inspect the lead applicants’ vehicles before defences are filed in the proceedings.

The defendants in a trade mark infringement case by the Pokemon Company were the victims of identity theft and were wrongly named in the suit, a court has heard.

A judge has hit the maker of Fairy dishwashing products with an interim injunction that will disrupt the launch of its 30 Minute Miracle detergent, after finding consumer claims by the maker of Finish dishwashing products had a strong prospect of success.

Liquidators of Sargon Capital are pursuing a claim for $4 million against super trustee firm Diversa and are investigating potential insolvent trading claims against the collapsed fintech’s directors.

The owners of Mother energy drinks and Vittoria Food & Beverage have both lost their challenges to each other’s ‘Motherland’ and ‘Mothersky’ trade marks and are considering taking the long-running stoush to the High Court. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has lost its challenge to a decision that tossed its case alleging NSW Ports stymied competition when it signed a 50-year agreement with the state to privatise two ports. 

The law firm running the Montara oil spill class action, which has settled for $192.5 million, is looking for a new lead applicant after the first one defected over concerns group members would lose half the settlement amount to legal costs and a funding commission.

Personal lender ClearLoans and its parent company have agreed to pay penalties of just over $6 million to settle the first COVID-19 related case brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The ACCC has lost proceedings accusing Google of duping millions of Australians into agreeing to expand the scope of personal information the tech giant could collect and combine for use in targeted advertising.