Potential new entrants to a major freight terminal in Queensland will be “better protected” by a last-minute promise by the terminal’s hopeful owner, Pacific National, than if the ACCC had succeeded in blocking the rail operator’s proposed $205 million acquisition, according to the judge who dismissed the competition watchdog’s case.
A judge has raised serious concerns about the proposed commission by the funder behind a $90 million sham contracting class action against fundraiser Appco, slamming as “intuitively wrong” an arrangment that could leave group members pocketing less than half of any recovery.
Melbourne-based civic compliance firm SARB Management Group wants to put the brakes on a case brought by tech company Vehicle Monitoring Systems over a patented method for detecting vehicles, in a dispute it says was finalised in a settlement reached almost five years ago.
The applicants in the Iluka Resources investor class action have just 14 days to sort out their funding troubles and provide a $1.25 million security, as a judge warns he will not be able to hold their trial date any longer.
Mining firm MACH Energy may move to strike out “inconsistent” pleadings in a $20 million lawsuit brought by its former managing director, Scott Winter, whose discovery delays have raised the ire of the judge hearing the case.
The High Court has agreed to take up an appeal by mining giant BHP Group Limited in its battle with the Australian Tax Office over an $82M tax bill.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has suffered a major defeat in its challenge to Pacific National’s proposed $205 million acquisition of competitor Aurizon’s Queensland freight terminal, with a judge saying he was appeased by a last-minute promise from Pacific that it would not block third parties from accessing the terminal.
The High Court has upheld an appeal by a mortgage broker with a history of run-ins with the law, finding that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal could not take spent convictions into account when reviewing ASIC ban orders.
US biotechnology company ICOS has settled a dispute with Australian-based Arrow Pharma over the patents for erectile dysfunction drug Cialis, less than 12 months after a court upheld the validity of the patents in a separate case.
A court has dismissed a long-running case against defunct Babcock & Brown executives by a private investment fund over a botched $1.4B acquisition of the biggest laundry equipment provider in the US, saying the executives did not breach their duties by failing to disclose that the bank underwriting the deal allegedly wanted out.