Pharmaceutical ingredient producer Alkaloids of Australia is facing a maximum $30 million penalty but has argued it should pay less than $1 million after pleading guilty to cartel conduct over the supply of a key chemical found in generic stomach cramp drugs.
Mercedes-Benz has been hit with $12.5 million in penalties for failing to use attention capturing, high impact language when communicating with customers about a compulsory recall of potentially deadly Takata airbags.
Engineering services firm G&S has lost a bid to shield emails about “the need to obtain legal advice” in a $270 million dispute with the operator of a NSW open-cut coal mine.
Online book retailer Booktopia has agreed to a $6 million penalty to resolve action brought by the consumer regulator alleging its refund policy was misleading.
Builder J Hutchinson and the CFMEU have been fined a combined $1.35 million for entered into an anti-competitive agreement to boycott an independent subcontractor at a construction site in Brisbane.
ASIC has told a judge AMP should face a $17.5 million penalty for deducting $356,000 from customers’ superannuation accounts for advice they never received, saying the wealth manager had shown “no real contrition” for its conduct.
The former owner of fitness franchise Zap Fitness has sued accounting firm Pitcher Partners, claiming it failed to properly advise on a troubled share buy-back scheme that spawned litigation the company paid $4.25 million to settle.
The state of Victoria can’t duck class action claims that failures in its hotel quarantine program caused businesses to suffer losses when stage three and four restrictions were put in place during the state’s second wave of COVID-19 cases in 2020.
Spirit Super and Palisade Investment Partners have withdrawn their $1.2 billion bid to acquire the Port of Geelong after the ACCC said the deal could substantially lessen competition in Victoria for the supply of bulk cargo port services.
A consolidated class action’s bid to include claims concerning dairy company a2 Milk’s disclosures to the New Zealand stock exchange is in doubt, despite broad agreement between the parties that the claims can be pursued in Victoria.