Ashurst

A class action against McDonald’s alleging workers were not given mandatory rest breaks has “gone backwards” after the fast food giant withdrew previously agreed facts, a court has heard. 

A class action over S&P’s rosy ratings on risky financial products faces a preliminary fight over the relevance of expert evidence that seeks to prove fraud on the part of the ratings agency.

In a first, EnergyAustralia has been ordered to pay $14 million for breaching the Electricity Retail Code by misleading customers about prices.

X Corp claims it is not answerable to a compliance notice the eSafety Commissioner issued to Twitter concerning its monitoring of child sexual abuse on its platform, telling the court there’s a “lively dispute” about the effect of the company’s acquisition by Elon Musk.

Uber has successfully challenged five years of payroll tax totalling more than $81 million, with a judge finding that payments made to drivers should not be taxed as wages as Uber only acts as a “payment collection agent” between rider and driver.

Hyundai and Kia have been ordered to produce further documents to allow a class action to investigate the nature and extent of alleged engine defects, with a judge rejecting the car makers’ bid to produce only a sample set of documents.

Legal action by a Melbourne Football Club member challenging the AFL club’s board election rules has been dismissed, with a judge finding the rule banning campaigning by candidates is not oppressive as alleged.

A environmental group has lost its challenge to the extension of the Mount Pleasant open cut coal mine in NSW operated by MACH Energy, with a judge finding the planning commission considered greenhouse emissions and did not merely pay “lip service” to the issue.

A judge has signed off on an agreed-to $5 million penalty against Noumi in ASIC proceedings for violating its continuous disclosure obligations and found the food company’s non-disclosures caused it shares to trade at an inflated price.

A judge has approved a $8.25 million settlement in a class action against PricewaterhouseCoopers brought by Axsesstoday bondholders over an allegedly misleading bond prospectus.