Regulators

The federal government has vowed to fight shrinkflation by strengthening the Unit Pricing Code and introducing “substantial penalties” for non-compliance.

ANZ has lost its appeal of a landmark decision finding it breached continuous disclosure rules by failing to disclose a $750 million bailout by underwriters during a $2.5 billion capital raising.

Medibank has denied breaching privacy rules in response to the regulator’s case over a 2022 cyber attack, but has admitted sensitive data was hacked in part because its network lacked multi-factor authentication. 

Drug supplier Sigma Healthcare has offered an undertaking in a bid to allay the competition regulator’s concerns about its proposed merger with Chemist Warehouse. 

Olam Agri Holdings has offered to divest its Queensland cotton gin and a 20 per cent holding in a leading Australian cotton classing company to win approval for its takeover of Namoi Cotton.

In a first, EnergyAustralia has been ordered to pay $14 million for breaching the Electricity Retail Code by misleading customers about prices.

The ACCC will not oppose Lendlease’s plan to sell a portfolio of residential projects to Stockland for $1.3 billion after accepting Stockland’s plan to divest a project in Illawarra. 

Vanguard Investments has been ordered to pay a penalty of almost $13 million for misleading the public about its $1 billion “ethically conscious” hedge fund.

Macquarie Bank has been fined a record $4.995 million for failing to stop the placement of suspicious orders on the electricity futures market.

The director of collapsed investment firm Linchpin Capital has lost his challenge to a $150,000 penalty, with an appeals court dismissing his arguments as “carping criticism”.