Judges

Start-up Element Zero claims Fortescue did not disclose material information to the court when it obtained search orders in its case alleging “industrial scale misuse” of the mining company’s confidential information.

In a loss for the Australian Taxation Office, the Full Federal Court has found that payments made by Asahi Breweries-owned Schweppes to PepsiCo under agreements to sell brands such as Pepsi and Mountain Dew in Australia were not subject to a royalty withholding tax. 

A senior barrister who was ordered to provide itemised bills to explain four invoices totalling $800,000 has avoided a contempt of court finding, with a judge saying he was not satisfied the silk failed to comply with the orders and that if the extent of the itemisation were inadequate this was not the result of “disobedience”.

Five federal officers have dropped their defamation case against former ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold over his complaint concerning their investigation into Brittany Higgins’ sexual assault claims against Bruce Lehrmann.

The liquidators of collapsed media company Big Un are pushing for a trial date in their two-year-old case against financier First Class Capital alleging a three million share purchase was part of a fraudulent design to inflate the collapsed company’s share price.

Epic Games has taken aim at Google for the “untruthful evidence” of its witnesses in the game maker’s competition case against the tech giant, as well as its failure to call senior executives to the stand to defend itself. 

Shareholders of Commonwealth Bank have lodged expected appeals challenging a decision tossing their class actions over alleged lax money laundering compliance, giving the Full Federal Court a chance to clarify when companies must disclose regulatory investigations.

A judge has expressed concern about the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s suspicion that a former director of Keystone Asset Management may have used investor funds to purchase a house in his wife’s name, calling it “alarming”.

A judge has ordered Transport for NSW to only pay 65 per cent of the costs of a class action over Sydney’s $3 billion light rail construction, finding it was not inappropriate to apportion costs even though the plaintiffs were largely successful.

Video game maker Epic Games has attacked as “entirely contrived” the defence by Apple in closing submissions in a Federal Court trial of its landmark competition case, pointing to the tech giant’s lack of evidence, including from CEO Tim Cook.