Regulators

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has largely won its case against BlueScope Steel and former general manager Jason Ellis alleging they engaged in “serious cartel conduct” in relation to the supply of flat steel products in Australia.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has sued health and beauty giant McPherson’s Limited and its former CEO over alleged continuous disclosure breaches and misleading or deceptive conduct during a capital raise in late 2020.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken online florist Bloomex to court for allegedly violating the Australian Consumer Law by posting misleading customer ratings on its website.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has brought proceedings against insurance company OnePath Life, marking the first time the corporate regulator is seeking financial penalties for an alleged failure to act with utmost good faith during claims handling.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has brought action against mining equipment company Qteq and its executive chairman Simon Ashton over allegations of bid rigging and other cartel conduct.

Mastercard has lost a bid to patent a data processing system used to prevent fraud on payment card networks, with an IP delegate Australia ruling the invention “does not rise above an idea.”

A judge has imposed a $21 million penalty on Uber for misleading customers through platform-wide cancellation messages and estimated fares on its Uber Taxi option, $5 million short of the “very substantial” sum jointly agreed by the parties.

AUSTRAC has launched court proceedings against SkyCity Adelaide for allegedly allowing more than $4 billion in suspicious customer transactions at its casino, including with cash that “appeared to have been buried”.

ASIC has taken American Express Australia to court over two credit cards co-branded with department store David Jones which the regulator alleges customers mistakenly believed were loyalty cards.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has brought proceedings against Telstra alleging it misled almost 9,000 customers about the upload speed of its budget internet provider Belong.