The FCACFC decision in Mineralogy affirms that commercial agreement terms between parties can be impacted by later agreements between those parties and by state agreements, and emphasises the care commercial drafters need to take. ...

Australian boards and senior executives are expected to maintain oversight of risk and compliance issues such as bribery sanctions human rights and anti-money laundering In-house counsel perform a central role in supporting this oversight and maintaining compliance In the last of a five-part series ...

The Queensland Government is proposing legislation that will restore a prohibition on landlords requiring tenants to pay land tax under commercial leases entered into after 1 January 1992 and before 30 June 2009 This essentially negates the effect of a Supreme Court decision that land tax from 30 ...

The financial services sector has been under scrutiny for some time with many different voices clamouring for further regulation or inquiries in a sector that is already highly regulated The recent Federal Budget included a number of measures focused on the state of competition in the financial ...

As of 1 September 2017 merchants will be prohibited from charging excessive payment surcharges for certain payment methods Under the new rules businesses can only pass on to customers what it costs them to process a payment The Allens Competition team have put together a brief overview of the ...

In Touch looks at what's been happening in Competition this month and what it means for your business ...

The Full Federal Court has unanimously held that patent term extensions are not available for second medical use claims involving the use of recombinant DNA technology This decision overturns a controversial finding of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal last year and means that any patent term ...

ASIC has released draft updates to four existing Regulatory Guides and drafts of two new Regulatory Guides for managed investment schemes corporate collective investment vehicles and passport funds and announced a consultation period which will run until 8 December Partners Marc Kemp and Penny ...

A broadened definition of whistleblower reforms to establish greater protections for whistleblowers and increased sanctions for retaliatory conduct are some of the recommendations by a Senate committee looking into whistleblower protections in the corporate public and not-for-profit sector We expect ...

After a considerable gestation period the proposed new design and distribution obligations for financial products, and intervention powers for ASIC, took their first, tentative steps yesterday, with the release of exposure draft legislation. ...