The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has raised preliminary competition concerns about Bauer Media’s planned $40 million acquisition of Pacific Magazines, a deal that would combine Australia’s two largest magazine publishers, saying competition needs to be preserved even in declining markets.
Westpac is facing a class action on behalf shareholders in three countries over its alleged anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing breaches and disclosures.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has taken legal action against National Australia Bank alleging thousands of violations of the law through its fees for no service conduct, exposing the bank to the risk of significant penalties.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has taken legal action on another referral from the banking royal commission, dragging life insurer TAL to court for allegedly engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct in its handling of a claim for coverage.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has flagged potentially “substantial gaps in risk governance” by Westpac as it formally kicked off an investigation into the bank and its executives for potential breaches of the Banking Act.
An email from the corporate regulator forwarded to a Perth businessman by his lawyer constituted proper notification that the executive had been disqualified, an appeals court has ruled in tossing a challenge to the method of service.
Google has come out in defence of its privacy disclosures to Android mobile users in the face of landmark legal action by the ACCC, saying the consumer regulator’s allegations of misleading conduct rely on an “artificial and incorrect” account of the way it informs users of the collection and use of personal location data.
A magistrate has dismissed a bid to expand the cross examination of a JPMorgan witness in the closely watched criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, calling it a “back door” attempt to bypass a prior court ruling.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will get an additional $26.9 million to take on Google and Facebook, but the Federal Government will proceed more slowly in implementing some of the more wide-ranging proposals in the regulator’s final digital platforms report, including suggested changes to privacy and merger review laws.
A committal hearing in the ANZ cartel case may run a further nine days next year due to ongoing arguments about subpoenas and privilege, which have derailed five planned days of cross-examination of key witnesses and led a Local Court Magistrate to proclaim she was “awful close” to ending her life.