7th May 2012
By Andrew Floro, Rachel Launders, Kate Meikle, Gail Spark
The High Court handed down two decisions on the James Hardie case last Thursday, which raise some interesting issues for companies and senior management, on how ASIC can be expected to conduct civil penalty proceedings, and potential exposure for senior management who may, without realising it, have liability as an “officer”, because of the role they carry out.
27th March 2012
By Stuart Brady, Andrew Floro, Paul McDonald
From Monday 26 March 2012 the Equity Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales will not make orders for the discovery of documents in Court proceedings until the parties have served their evidence, unless there are exceptional circumstances necessitating such disclosure.
16th December 2011
By Rani John
Click here to listen to partner Rani John discuss the Federal Court’s preliminary decision on 5 December 2011, regarding the bank fee class action against ANZ.
12th December 2011
By Andrew Floro, Matt Mackenzie
On 8 December 2011, the Federal Court has ordered that Harvey Norman pay a pecuniary penalty of $1.25 million for contraventions of the Trade Practices Act (TPA) and the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
8th December 2011
By Peter Giurissevich, Rani John, Crispian Lynch
The Federal Court has delivered its much anticipated first decision in the class action commenced by a number of customers against ANZ. In the case, the customers claim a number of bank fees are unenforceable “penalties” which ANZ should repay.
6th December 2011
Most attempts to rely on actions under the misleading and deceptive conduct provisions of the Trade Practices Act or Australian Consumer Law or the tort of passing off to prevent copying of product designs have been unsuccessful, at least where the knockoff products bore differentiating brands from the original. The recent Full Federal Court case of Bodum v DKSH Australia Pty Limitedi (Bodum), which found that copying a plunger design was misleading and deceptive conduct, has been hailed by many as indicating that the tide is turning in favour of designers.
2nd December 2011
By Andrew Floro, Colleen Platford
On 30 November 2011, the Full Federal Court discharged the injunctions granted by the primary judge on 14 October 2011 which prevented Samsung from launching its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer in Australia. The injunction prevented Samsung from launching its products in the crucial Christmas trading period and was likely to effectively prevent the particular current version of the product being launched in Australia.
29th November 2011
By Julie Athanasoff, Rani John
In the recent Federal Court decision of Stratford Sun Limited v OM Holdings Limited [2011] FCA 1275, a shareholder of OM Holdings Limited (OMH), Stratford Sun Limited (SSL), unsuccessfully claimed that meeting materials provided by OMH in relation to a global offering of OMH shares and proposed dual listing of OMH on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE) were misleading and in breach of the ASX Listing Rules.
10th October 2011
By Elizabeth Avery, Justine Cameron, Peter Feros, Peter Giurissevich, Rani John, Kaushalya Mataraaratchi, Freya Smith
The past year has seen important decisions and developments in a number of areas affecting investigations and enforcement action taken by Australian regulators. The Australian Chapter of the inaugural International Investigations Review outlines significant changes in enforcement matters in Australia. Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd.
27th September 2011
By Andrew Floro, Matt Mackenzie
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), brought a case against Google Inc and Trading Post alleging that they had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct in connection with the publication of sponsored links on Google’s search results pages in contravention of s 52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (TPA). An equivalent provision to s 52 of the TPA is now found in s 18 of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
21st September 2011
By Amy Annan, Steven Glass, Airlie Goodman, Lena Vanmali
The Australian chapter of Dispute Resolution 2011 was published as part of the Getting the Deal Through series. Accreditation: Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Limited. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through – Dispute Resolution (published in June 2011; contributing editor: Simon Bushell). For further information please visit www.GettingTheDealThrough.com.
12th July 2011
By Andrew Floro
On 7 July 2011, Justice Perram of the Federal Court of Australia ordered Singtel Optus to pay $5.26 million in civil pecuniary penalties for breaches of consumer protection provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TPA) (equivalent provisions are now found in the Australian Consumer Law which forms a schedule to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010). This is the biggest civil penalty imposed since the Federal Court was granted powers to order civil pecuniary penalties for breaches of consumer protection laws.
6th July 2011
The decision of the Federal Court in Australian Securities & Investments Commission v Healey & Ors [2011] FCA 717 has no doubt raised anxiety levels for a number of non-executive directors, concerned that they must now become experts in accounting standards.
1st June 2011
The level of disclosure required in the context of negotiations for the purchase or leasing of property, assets or businesses is often vexing to both parties to the negotiations and the courts required to adjudicate on alleged misleading or deceptive conduct.
1st April 2011
By Mark Gerus
The mining industry in Western Australia contributes billions of dollars to the State’s consolidated revenue. Iron ore royalties alone amounted to approximately $1.7 billion in 2009. The Mining Warden is central to the system of grant of mining titles and resolving disputes between competing miners and other stakeholders.
2nd March 2010
Click here to read more information on the rise of shareholder class actions in Australia.
8th April 2008
By Amy Annan, Alexandra Cameron, Tim Castle, Steven Glass, Rani John, Colleen Platford
There has been a significant change in ASIC`s approach when compelling companies or individuals to produce their books or records, and when conducting compulsory examinations of witnesses. (These coercive powers are amongst ASIC`s most potent tools in investigating suspected contraventions of the Corporations Act or ASIC Act.)
18th February 2008
By Dianne Banks, Kim McGuren, James Pomeroy
On 13 February 2008, the Federal Government introduced its first round of workplace relations changes into the Parliament. The centrepiece of the proposed legislation is the removal of the ability to make new Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) under the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (WorkChoices). @Work examines the proposed new legislation and identifies key aspects of WorkChoices which will continue at least until the transition to the Government`s new workplace system is complete. The commencement date of the new legislation will depend on the Federal Opposition, which has the numbers to block the legislation in the Senate until 30 June 2008. Once passed by Parliament, the Government will likely want the legislation to commence at the earliest opportunity.
17th December 2007
By Dianne Banks, Steven Glass, Rani John, Colleen Platford
The topic of privilege has been in the spotlight this year following the Australian Law reform Commission`s mandate to review the contentious issue of legal professional privilege and a number of cases before the courts which have put the topic firmly on the agenda. As the year draws to a close, those in the legal profession will no doubt be preparing to cast an (objective) eye over the Commission`s recommendations to the Attorney General. Meanwhile, the bar has well and truly been raised in relation to civil penalties following the Visy decision in early November.
19th July 2007
By Dianne Banks, Kim McGuren, James Pomeroy
From 20 July 2007 employers must provide their employees with a new Workplace Relations Fact Sheet.
3rd July 2007
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Ltd judgement was handed down on 28 June 2006.
5th April 2007
The arcane legal topic of client legal privilege has been in the news recently. In a number of cases, clients who believed their communications with lawyers were privileged found that belief to have been misplaced, sometimes with significant commercial or legal implications. Courts, it seems, are more willing than ever to find that circumstances have arisen in which privilege is lost or waived. Now the Australian Law Reform Commission is looking generally at the question of privilege. This edition of Gilbert + Tobin`s Dispute Resolution Update surveys these developments.
8th March 2007
Gilbert + Tobin Dispute Resolution Update is intended to provide you with periodic updates on developments in Litigation and Dispute Resolution. If you would like more information on any developments discussed in this issue, or would have any suggestions on what issues you would like to be covered, please contact any of the partners listed at the end of this newsletter.
1st March 2007
Welcome to the eighth edition of @Work. This news service is a Gilbert + Tobin initiative to keep you on top of the latest legal developments affecting employment and industrial relations.
