ACCC

Despite the growing popularity of new entrant TikTok, Facebook and Instagram-owner Meta retains significant market power in the social media industry, reporting annual advertising revenue of $5 billion in Australia alone, a report has found.

A senior ANZ executive was “deeply concerned” by the size of the shortfall in its $2.5 billion 2015 equity capital raising, the court heard on the first day of trial in ASIC’s civil penalty case against the bank over alleged disclosure breaches.

The competition and consumer regulator is examining how banks set interest rates on savings accounts and why they are not in line with the Reserve Bank’s cash rate increases, as part of an inquiry launched in February.

The ACCC has given its blessing to Sika’s planned acquisition of Germany-based MBCC Group, subject to the divestiture of MBCC’s Australian and New Zealand business.

Award-wining architecture firm Ashton Raggatt McDougall and its former boss have agreed to pay a combined $975,000 in penalties for attempting to rig bids on a $250 million building project at Charles Darwin University.

BlueScope Steel spent $27 million defending the ACCC’s claims that it engaged in serious cartel conduct in relation to the supply of flat steel products in Australia, and its apologies came too late to warrant a penalty discount, a court has heard.

The head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has called for reforms to Australia’s merger laws that would make review by the regulator compulsory, saying the current  informal review regime hampers its ability to block anti-competitive deals.

The Full Federal Court has upheld a finding that online educator Captain Cook College engaged in systemic unconscionable conduct by enrolling thousands of unsuitable students, who accrued $60 million in debt but never finished their courses. 

Dominique Grubisa has denied the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s allegation that she misled consumers about her wealth management courses, arguing the claims that owners could sell their homes but retain equity were “substantially true”.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Mazda have both lost their appeals in a case over the car manufacturer’s ‘appalling’ customer service, with three judges questioning the regulator’s decisions in how it ran the case.