Insights Categories: Corporate & Commercial

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, […]

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 […]

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: […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Many pharmacists go into business with trusted friends or colleagues, and with a strong common vision for their business. In many cases, the pharmacy will run smoothly and the owners will simply agree on the many decisions that need to be made in the day to day running of the business. Despite this, we always […]

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) Governance Standards require registered charities to remain charitable, operate lawfully, and be run in an accountable and responsible way. For registered charities, complying with the Governance Standards not only ensures charity registration with the ACNC, but also continued Commonwealth charity tax concessions. In recent months, two major changes […]

A recent decision of the Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner, Commissioner Falk, highlights the importance of staff training on the collection and storage of personal information and the need to manage customers’ personal information in an open and transparent way. In 2017, Flight Centre held a ‘design jam’ to create technological solutions for travel agents. […]

One of the intentions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) is to enable an effective credit reporting system while safeguarding the privacy of individuals. To ensure that credit providers are able to comply with their responsible lending obligations, Part IIIA of the Privacy Act sets out: the types of personal information that credit […]

On 23 December 2020, the Australian Government released the Report of the Inquiry into Future Directions for the Consumer Data Right. The Report looks at how Australia’s data sharing regime can be enhanced to further benefit consumers and strengthen our digital economy. For Australian businesses in the banking, energy and telecommunications sectors, now is the […]