ASIC has won its bid to appoint receivers to a managed investment scheme run by Keystone Asset Management after expressing “grave concerns” that investor funds were used to pay sports stars and buy a $4.3 million home for its former director.
A class action trial has heard that allegedly flammable Alucobond panels provided by 3A Composites and supplier Halifax Vogel are comparable to petrol and could present an “insurmountable challenge” to containing a fire.
BlueScope Steel is seeking to overturn a record $57.5 million penalty for engaging in attempted price-fixing with flat steel distributors, telling an appeals court that it was simply trying to make its competitors understand “it was in their interests to price differently”.
A judge has found energy company AGL committed thousands of contraventions of the Retail Rules by continuing to deduct payments from welfare recipients after they had closed their accounts.
Convenience store chain On the Run is mulling proceedings against United Petroleum, which allegedly paid $120,000 to a public relations firm to run a “misleading” ad campaign accusing it of wage theft.
A class action against restaurant chain Fogo Brasilia and its law firm alleging franchisees were misled about the profitability of their businesses could be shut down, with the lead plaintiff unable to pay security for costs after the funder pulled out, a court has heard.
Isuzu is the latest car maker to be stung with a class action for allegedly using defeat devices to cheat on emissions tests, and many more car makers may find themselves in the crosshairs over the “common practice”.
The PR firm for a franchisee class action against United Petroleum has been sued for allegedly distributing an image to group members that depicted the petrol giant as “evil” and was allegedly intended to harm its position in the class action.
General Motors has failed to overturn a decision that put it on the hook for the applicant’s full costs in a partial settlement in a class action on behalf of Holden dealers, with an appeals court finding GM could not “walk away” from the ordinary meaning of the phrase ‘the plaintiff’s costs of the proceedings’.
The High Court has rejected an appeal by Captain Cook College of a finding that it engaged in systemic unconscionable conduct by enrolling thousands of unsuitable students, finding courts are not constrained by factors the consumer law says it “may consider” in deciding if conduct rises to the level of unconscionability.