Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has followed through on her threat to sue Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm for defamation, the first case to be brought by a sitting senator against a fellow politician.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is reportedly seeking a $10 million fine against H.J. Heinz after a Federal Court found it made misleading claims about the health benefits of its Little Kids Shredz products.
Forcing courts to choose a single winner in the battle over competing class actions would exacerbate the problems of overlapping cases and encourage the race to court, class action powerhouse Maurice Blackburn said Wednesday.
The Australian maker of Difflam has taken UK consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser to court over ads for Strepfen that claim the rival lozenges provide ‘longer lasting relief’ from sore throats.
The final day of trial in the ACCC’s case over muscle gel Voltaren wrapped up Wednesday with a barrister for GlaxoSmithKline slamming as ‘onerous’ a compliance regime proposed by the consumer watchdog and blasting an injunction as unnecessary for a problem the pharmaceutical giant ‘inherited’ from Novartis.
When US food giant Kraft faces off next week in its lawsuit against Aussie cheese company Bega for allegedly violating its peanut butter trade dress, the court will be faced with the thorny task of unraveling a complex corporate transaction that left both companies claiming rights to the iconic trade dress.
The timing of an email from a Herbert Smith Freehills solicitor alerting the Fair Work Commission to union contempt proceedings, which the firm argued early this year was grounds for halting the amalgamation of the CFMEU with two other unions, points to ‘a high level of collusion’ to block the merger, a judge said Tuesday.
Law firm Squire Patton Boggs is again on the losing end of a ruling by the judge presiding over a shareholder class action against GetSwift, a case now better known for infighting among lawyers than for the allegations levelled against the tech startup.
A judge has hit property manager Meriton with a $3 million penalty after finding the company misled consumers by manipulating negative TripAdvisor reviews, but the fine was well below the $20 million sought by the consumer watchdog.
Lawyers for two competing class actions against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia over breaches of anti-money laundering laws say the cases can happily co-exist, but whether the court will agree may well depend on the outcome of a closely-watched appeal in a separate battle over multiple proceedings.