ACCC

Legal representatives for a company that dobs in fellow cartel members will not generally be permitted in the room when the competition regulator interviews directors, employees and others seeking derivative immunity from prosecution, under proposed amendments to the ACCC’s immunity policy.

Global Payments’ plan to acquire Sydney software company School Bytes Learning may substantially lessen competition, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has said in outlining preliminary concerns with the deal.

A New South Wales developer’s competition case against NSW Ports over a ports privatisation agreement looks bound for the High Court after a judge found a related ACCC proceeding did not bar it from bringing the case, which will challenge a Full Court finding that the ports operator was shielded by derivative Crown immunity.

Consumers are “generally unaware” of the extent to which data firms and third parties mine and utilise their data, according to a report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has expressed concerns that France-based Louis Dreyfus’ proposed acquisition of ASX-traded cotton gin operator Namoi Cotton could substantially lessen competition and lead to higher prices for ginning services.

Qantas will pay a $100 million penalty and another $20 million in compensation in a settlement of the ACCC’s so-called ghost flights case that includes an admission by the airline that it engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in selling tickets for cancelled flights.

Fashion retailer Mosaic Brands has flagged various COVID-related defences to a case brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleging it failed to deliver several hundred thousand products to customers within advertised time frames.

Sydney lawyer and wealth guru Dominique Grubisa is challenging a finding in an ACCC case that her seminars made misleading statements and has sought to pause the court action until her appeal is heard, a bid a judge has warned won’t be “favourably received” by him.

Clorox has been taken to court for alleged greenwashing, with the ACCC claiming the consumer goods giant misled customers into believing that a line of its GLAD trash bags were sourced from plastic recycled from the ocean.

Competition law experts have raised doubts about changes to Australia’s merger review regime announced Wednesday, calling the reforms a mixed bag for businesses and the reduced role of the Federal Court “disappointing”.