An attempt by applicants in two franchisee class actions against 7-Eleven to limit communications between the convenience store giant and group members ahead of a hearing to approve a confidential settlement with ANZ, the bank that loaned money to the franchisees, unfairly delays approval of the settlement until next year, a court has heard.
The Federal Court has approved a $14.6 million class action settlement with private training company Ashley Services, auditors Deloitte and Grant Thornton, and Holmes Management Group, with IMF Bentham set to pocket around $4.8 million for funding the litigation.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has come up short again in its challenge to Pacific National’s $205 million acquisition of competitor Aurizon’s Queensland freight terminal, with a judge shooting down the regulator’s request for a variation of Pacific’s undertaking that it will not block third parties from accessing the terminal.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has narrowly lost its High Court appeal of a ruling that found the owner of a South Australian outback general store had not acted unconscionably by selling used cars through a “book-up” system.
Banking giant Westpac has settled an investor class action brought by Levitt Robinson for its alleged role in an unregistered managed investment scheme.
A class action against the NSW government over a contractor who sold the personal details of 130 ambulance workers to personal injury law firms has flagged it may subpoena the founder and principal of Bannister Law, which purchased the confidential information.
Maurice Blackburn has hit back at a lawsuit by State Street Global Advisors over the law firm’s use of a replica of its Fearless Girl statue, denying it has infringed the asset manager’s intellectual property.
Promises to pay out claims under vehicle warranties issued by a unit of car leasing giant McMillan Shakespeare were illusory because of a clause that gave the company “manifestly sweeping” discretion to reject any claim, a judge has ruled, in a victory for a class action over the allegedly worthless financial products.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will seek more than $4 million in refunds plus penalties when it takes the troubled operator of the Jump! Swim School franchise and its top executive to court for alleged violations of the Australian Consumer Law.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has lost its market manipulation action against Whitebox Trading and its director Johannes Boshoff, with the court finding it was “practically impossible” that any of the trades at the centre of the case were made for an illegitimate purpose.