Judges

A judge has found that a clause in Apple’s agreement with developers requires that Fortnite game developer Epic Games litigate a closely watched competition lawsuit against the tech giant on its home turf. 

Volkswagen has lost its challenge to a landmark $125 million Dieselgate penalty handed down by a judge who lambasted a $75 million fine proposed by the ACCC as “manifestly inadequate”, in what ACCC chair Rod Sims told Lawyerly was a “turning point” for the regulator to push for higher fines.

Advanta Seeds has defeated a class action brought over contaminated seeds, with a court finding the Australian seed supplier did not owe a duty of care to irate farmers who allegedly suffered loss and damage from the decreased value of their sorghum crops sowed in the 2010/2011 summer season. 

Phi Finney McDonald will amend its funding agreement with Therium in a shareholder class action against Boral after a judge found that an irrevocable opt out provision placed the law firm in a “manifest position of conflict”.

A judge has ordered ASIC to flesh out its case accusing the Retail Employees Superannuation of misleading members about their ability to move their super out of the REST Trust, given the “significant” allegations that a deliberate system was behind the superannuation trustee’s alleged misconduct.

A Johnson & Johnson unit wants the High Court to review the Full Federal Court’s rejection of its challenge to a landmark class action ruling that found the company’s pelvic mesh implants were defective and that it failed to adequately warn about their risks.

A court has rejected claims by a former client of Tucker & Cowen that the law firm entered into a binding settlement of $150,000 to resolve a negligence and breach of contract lawsuit over legal costs incurred in a protracted spat over a Nigerian telecoms company.

The judge overseeing sports presenter Erin Molan’s defamation case against the Daily Mail won’t force Molan to be questioned ahead of trail about a segment on Nine’s The Footy Show in which she laughed at an off-colour joke, saying the  publisher was “fishing”.

The Commonwealth of Australia is seeking to remove all references to representative proceedings from a class action pleading that alleges the government failed to disclose the impacts of climate change to investors in sovereign bonds.

Accounting firm Findex Australia has lost a bid for the High Court to hear its case over a restraint provision against a former financial advisor found to have been unenforcable.