Competition & Consumer Protection

Financial services company Dixon Advisory has been hit with a class action for allegedly pushing financial products onto investors that it stood to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from and failing to disclose its alleged conflict of interest.

A judge has declined to quash the indictment in a high-profile criminal case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement but sent prosecutors back to the drawing board to remedy its defects, calling the state of affairs “a complete shemozzle”.

JPMorgan’s general counsel for Australia and New Zealand was allowed to sit in on witness interviews during an ACCC cartel investigation into ANZ’s $2.5 billion share placement despite allegedly being involved in the cartel conduct, a judge has heard.

A judge has left open the possibility that aggregate damages could be awarded in a class action against US auto giant Ford on behalf of 185,000 vehicle owners over their defective cars.

A judge has rejected part of IVF provider Virtus Health’s bid for redactions in a recent decision from the court temporarily blocking the company from purchasing rival Adora Fertility, saying some of the confidentiality claims were “staggering” and “border on ridiculous.”

An issuer of Gold Coast-based cryptocurrency Qoin may be hit with a class action by investors claiming it is a “token of no utility”.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has accused Finnish microloan company Ferratum of overcharging vulnerable, low-income consumers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BlueScope general manager Jason Ellis made executives of a steel distributor “extremely uncomfortable” in a meeting where he presented the steel giant’s price list, a court hearing the ACCC’s price-fixing case was told Monday.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned public agencies not to encourage businesses to coordinate bids for tenders, saying an investigation showed government departments had “contemplated cooperation” by competitors.

In a major blow to the competition regulator’s high-profile price-fixing case over ANZ’s $2.5 billion capital raising, prosecutors have dropped all charges against the bank and its group treasurer, Rick Moscati.