The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has raised preliminary competition concerns about the proposed merger of insurance giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson to create the world’s largest insurance provider, following investigations in the US, Europe, Canada and New Zealand.
Forty-four charges have been outlined in a long-awaited indictment in a criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, including 29 charges against top executives from ANZ, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup.
Two insurance brokers have dodged being dragged into class action proceedings against sandalwood producer Quintis to boost a settlement reached last year, as a fight over insurance owed to the company to cover the settlement continues.
Further attempts to settle a securities class action against last mile logistics software firm GetSwift would be like flogging a dead horse, a judge has heard as the matter works its way towards a final hearing.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia could be on the hook for a large penalty after the court found the bank engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and violated its financial services obligations on more than 12,000 occasions by overcharging customers more than $2.2 million in interest.
GetSwift has been criticised for its “quite unfair attack” on a Federal Court judge who refused to disqualify himself from hearing a shareholder class action against the logistics software company after presiding over ASIC’s civil penalty proceeding against the company.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission presented its misleading and deceptive conduct case against companies in the Mayfair Group in an undefended trial on Monday, while the beleaguered investment group’s director watched the online proceedings as a muted observer.
US consumer goods giant Kimberly-Clark has agreed to pay $200,000 for misleading ‘Made in Australia’ representations made on its ‘flushable’ wipes.
Proceedings launched by ASIC in December accusing the Commonwealth Bank of Australia of saddling consumers with $2.9 million in inflated interest rates on their business overdraft accounts on more than 12,000 occasions will move swiftly to a penalties hearing.
Jailed con artist Douglas Johnston, who was convicted of defrauding investors of $815,000 in 2019, has successfully appealed three of nine dishonesty charges, with a judge finding that depositional evidence from two witnesses should have been discounted.