The barrister leading an appeal seeking to revive Quinn Emanuel’s fees for no service class action against AMP has criticised the approach taken in the landmark GetSwift ruling on competing class actions, saying it placed the court in the role of auctioneer and actually encouraged duplicative proceedings.
Bellamy’s has lost its appeals court battle to limit the costs incurred by lawyers jointly running two shareholder class actions against the baby food maker.
A judge has signed off on a $40 million settlement reached in shareholder class action against Sirtex, including a $10 million cut for the funders, saying commission rates should reflect the risks taken by funders.
Facebook and Instagram have denied allegations they breached Australia’s competition law when they terminated the accounts of a Melbourne-based startup, saying they were entitled to block the company from their platforms.
US biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has filed a Federal Court challenge after losing its opposition to a patent application by UK biopharmaceutical company Kymab for a method of producing an animal with part-human DNA.
Businessman Clive Palmer has lost an application to put a stop to a trial in a case brought by the liquidators of collapsed Queensland Nickel after arguing the proceeding was continuing largely to pay the litigation funder bankrolling the case.
Norway-based shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean AS has become the third international shipper to be charged with price fixing in Australia, just three weeks after Japan’s K-Line was hit with a record $34.5 million fine over the same alleged cartel.
Westpac has recently agreed to pay a combined $23.25 million to settle two class actions against it, cutting the number of class actions the bank is facing in half.
IP Australia has dismissed opposition by British American Tobacco to a patent sought by rival cigarette company Philip Morris that covers a resealable cigarette packet that claims to provide an improved experience for smokers.
A party to a contract may be precluded from enforcing a contractual right if it has acted in a way that is clearly inconsistent with that right under the doctrine of election. Recently, the NSW Court of Appeal applied the principles of election to a complex factual scenario and the lesson from the decision is this — if you have a right to terminate a contract, you should expressly communicate your intentions to the other party as soon as possible after the right to terminate enlivens, says McCabe Curwood managing principal Andrew Lacey.