Competition & Consumer Protection

Australia’s largest brick manufacturer Brickworks has accused a rival founded by billionaire Len Buckeridge of substantially lessening competition in Western Australia through a 2021 acquisition and engaging in predatory pricing that caused it to shut its doors in the state.

Global Payments’ plan to acquire Sydney software company School Bytes Learning may substantially lessen competition, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has said in outlining preliminary concerns with the deal.

A New South Wales developer’s competition case against NSW Ports over a ports privatisation agreement looks bound for the High Court after a judge found a related ACCC proceeding did not bar it from bringing the case, which will challenge a Full Court finding that the ports operator was shielded by derivative Crown immunity.

Ramsay Health Care has won a partial interim injunction banning the union representing its nurses from running ads that claim the private hospital operator runs on a staff-to-patient ratio double that of public hospitals.

Consumers are “generally unaware” of the extent to which data firms and third parties mine and utilise their data, according to a report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 

The Northern Territory public housing authority has moved to throw out a class action’s claims that it engaged in racial discrimination by failing to maintain public housing in remote Aboriginal communities. 

A decision awarding carriage to Gilbert + Tobin in a class action against Jaguar Land Rover on the condition that it lower its funding rate lacked procedural fairness, the Full Court has found, prompting the firm to team up with its competitor to run the case. 

Four insurers have agreed to fork over $1 million to settle an investor class action against lender Axsesstoday over an allegedly misleading prospectus for a bond offering, while claims against PricewaterhouseCoopers will move forward.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has expressed concerns that France-based Louis Dreyfus’ proposed acquisition of ASX-traded cotton gin operator Namoi Cotton could substantially lessen competition and lead to higher prices for ginning services.

A judge has expressed concerns about the plaintiff’s proposed group costs order rate in a shareholder class action against fleet management company FleetPartners, saying the purpose of the GCO regime was to lower costs to group members.