A penalty hearing in the ACCC’s case against health booking company HealthEngine over misleading online reviews has been adjourned after a judge criticised the parties’ joint submissions as “deficient” for failing to explain how a proposed $2.9 million penalty had been arrived at.
Gaming giant Sony has agreed to pay a $3.5 million penalty to settle proceedings brought by the ACCC for making misleading consumer representations to purchasers of PlayStation games.
Bupa Aged Care has dropped a lawsuit challenging a directive by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission that it claimed overlapped with proceedings brought by the ACCC in which it was recently ordered to pay a $6 million penalty.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said competition by smaller airlines was essential ‘now, more than ever’ as the airline industry undergoes a major upheaval due to the coronavirus and the administration of Virgin Airlines, and vowed to continue its probe of Qantas’ 19.9 per cent stake in Alliance Airlines.
A five-month litigation drought due to the difficulties of remote investigations and staff diversions during the coronavirus pandemic will end soon, ACCC chairman Rod Sims told Lawyerly, with enforcement action set to ramp back up in the second half of the year.
The ACCC has lost its bid to stay a cartel appeal by Indonesian airline PT Garuda, with a judge finding the competition watchdog had not shown the airline acted in contempt of court by failing to pay a $19 million fine.
A court has granted a request from Grosvenor Litigation Services, the funder that backed two class actions against Volkswagen over its emissions cheating scandal, to suppress the details of a co-funding agreement with Vannin Capital.
The ACCC has been given the green light to use witness statements prepared during its criminal cartel investigation of BlueScope Steel in the civil penalty proceedings launched by the regulator, but a fight with the steel giant over the admissibility of the evidence still looms.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has won court approval to bring new claims against BlueScope Steel for allegedly seeking to induce competitor OneSteel to engage in cartel conduct.
Bupa Aged Care has been ordered to pay a $6 million penalty for charging customers of its aged care facilities for services it never provided, including enhancements intended to improve the quality of life for its most vulnerable residents, such as those suffering from dementia and blindness.