Personal lender ClearLoans and its parent company have been hit with $6 million in penalties for violating consumer credit protections laws, including by failing to respond to financial hardship notices from debtors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A mortgage broker has lost his challenge to a tribunal’s decision to uphold a lifelong ban by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
A judge has declined to stay a class action against BPS Financial, the issuer of cryptocurrency Qoin, in light of similar ASIC proceedings.
Agricultural giant Nufarm has lost its appeal of a decision giving rival Advanta Seeds extra time to pay a renewal fee for its patent for a hybrid plant cell, after an error by its lawyers caused the renewal to fall through the cracks.
Petrol giant Ampol has reached a $157 million agreement with the Australian Taxation Office to resolve a long-running dispute over transfer pricing of goods between its Singaporean hub and Australian unit.
Melbourne man Joshua Fuoco has been fined $6,000 and convicted for managing the now defunct consumer lender Financial Circle while disqualified.
A law firm running underpayments class actions against Coles and Woolworths has sought orders forcing them to hand over contact details for key workers in the Fair Work Ombudsman’s parallel cases, which the supermarket giants lashed as likely to “cause chaos” in the proceedings.
GetSwift has been hit with a $15M penalty and several of its directors have been slapped with substantial penalties after the company was found to have misled shareholders in breach of the Corporations Act.
The Attorney-General has proposed an overhaul of Australia’s privacy laws that would allow consumers to sue for Privacy Act breaches and bring in an EU-style right to be forgotten.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s has detailed its enforcement priorities for 2023, which include a continued focus on predatory lending, crypto-assets and greenwashing.