Insights Categories: Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Cyber Security Awareness Month – Are you cyber aware?

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month (CSAM). CSAM is an annual reminder for Australians to stay safe online and protect your online information and assets. The theme for CSAM 2023 is ‘be cyber aware – don’t compromise’. CSAM is an opportunity for businesses to review their understanding of ‘cyber security’ as a concept while continuing […]

Online Reviews & Defamation

Meridian is increasingly receiving enquiries from both health practitioners and service providers seeking advice regarding negative reviews placed online by members of the public. Sometimes the reviews are thought to be unfair and unreasonable, and sometimes they cross over the line and are abusive and defamatory. With the ever increasing reliance on digital marketing and […]

Dangers in negotiating commercial agreements

Commercial agreements vary in complexity, the length of time parties are involved in negotiations, and importantly, in the level of formality the parties employ as they ‘thrash out’ the terms. For these reasons, it is sometimes difficult to work out when the negotiations have reached a point where the law would regard the parties as […]

The importance of an up to date and relevant shareholders’ agreement

A shareholders’ agreement is a contract between a company’s shareholders (sometimes the company itself is also a party), setting out the rights and obligations of the shareholders in relation to the affairs of the company and how it is to be managed. If the company is the trustee of a unit trust the agreement relates […]

New disclosure obligations in New South Wales require increased transparency with consumers

From 1 January 2021, New South Wales Fair Trading is proposing to enforce new disclosure obligations (which were first introduced in July 2020) contained in the Fair Trading Act 1987 (NSW). The new obligations relate to how businesses that supply goods and services in New South Wales to consumers, communicate with customers and how intermediaries […]

Defamation – be careful what you post on social media

The Federal Court of Australia decision in Webster v Brewer [2020] FCA622 is a timely reminder that people need to be cautious about what they post on Facebook about other people and entities. The warnings in this article are also relevant to organisations that have their own Facebook pages. For reasons which are still unknown, […]

Retailers beware of advertising false promotions

The ACCC recently successfully prosecuted eyewear retailer, Oscar Wylee in the Federal Court of Australia which resulted in Oscar Wylee being ordered to pay $3.5m in penalties for misleading and deceptive conduct and making false and misleading representations about its charitable donations and affiliations in breach of the Australian Consumer Law. Between January 2014 and […]

How the changing definition of “consumer” under the Australian Law may affect you

From 1 July 2021, the monetary threshold for determining whether a person (or business) acquires goods or services as a “consumer” under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is set to increase from $40,000 to $100,000. Currently, under the ACL, the definition of a “consumer” is a person (or business) who acquires goods or services if: […]

Use of electronic signatures – a cautionary note

In recent times the use of electronic signatures has become common place. The use of electronic signatures during the COVID-19 pandemic has often been a necessity. On 5 May 2020, the Treasurer made the Corporations (Coronavirus Economic Response) Determination (No. 1) 2020 which provided that documents could be executed on behalf of a company under section 127 […]

Clipping the wings of phoenix activity: New requirements for resigning directors

New laws came into effect on 18 February 2021, under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating Illegal Phoenixing) Act 2020 which provide that a company director will not be able to back date his or her resignation more than 28 days. A director will also not be able to resign as a director of a company […]

Statutory Demands – back to being an effective means of collecting debt from a corporate debtor

What is a Statutory Demand? A statutory demand is an efficient and inexpensive legislative tool enabling creditors to demand payment of a debt that is due and payable to it by a company debtor. Importantly, it is the first step in the process of having a liquidator appointed by the Court to wind-up the company […]

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