Insights Categories: Corporate & Commercial

Misleading Advertising in Financial Services

Financial services providers need to take care to ensure that their advertising does not mislead consumers and that any qualification to a headline offer must be adequately disclosed in the advertisement. On 23 March 2018 RAA Insurance Pty Limited (RAA) paid $43,200 in penalties after ASIC issued four infringement notices to it for misleading representations […]

Meridian Lawyers bolsters its property and commercial leasing practice in Sydney

Meridian Lawyers announced this week that it has appointed Penny Evans as a Principal to the firm’s Sydney property and commercial practice. Penny joins Meridian from Tresscox where she spent 22 years as a Partner in the property practice. She will be accompanied by lawyers Zile Yu and Annelise Morgan. In addition Laura Forsyth, Special Counsel will re-join Penny’s team having been […]

PI Cover for AFS Licensees – Check your cover as not all PI policies have the same cover

Recent amendments to Regulatory Guide 126 highlight that financial service providers should regularly review their PI cover to ensure compliance with their regulatory and AFS Licence requirements. In or about August this year, ASIC release findings following a review of professional indemnity (PI) insurance policies held by a sample of 56 small AFS licensees to […]

New Legislation Introduces Ban on Excessive Payment Surcharges

On 1 September 2017, a ban was imposed on the practice of charging customers excessive surcharges on card payments pursuant to Competition and Consumer Amendment (Payment Surcharges) Act 2016. It will affect all businesses operating in Australia or businesses utilising an Australian bank when charging customers payment surcharges for using a credit card or debit card for payment including EFTPOS, […]

Expanded Protection for Whistleblowers in Corporate, Financial and Credit Sectors including Tax Misconduct

On 23 October 2017, the Commonwealth Government released an exposure draft of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Whistleblowers) Bill 2017 which contains significant reforms to Australia’s private sector whistleblower laws. The new regime will offer protection to whistleblowers in the corporate, financial and credit sectors and will introduce new protections for tax whistleblowers. The proposed legislation […]

Put it in writing: Tools to protect and enforce minority shareholder rights (Part 2)

The Importance of a Shareholders’ Agreement In the previous issue of Commercial Insights, we wrote about the utility and importance of a shareholders’ agreement in protecting the rights of a minority holding, as illustrated by the recent case of SDW2 Pty Ltd v JLF Corporation Pty Ltd & Ors[1] in the Supreme Court of Queensland. […]

How to avoid copyright infringement

With so much information publicly available, you must be careful not to infringe copyright when you use another person’s material. How can you better comply with Australian copyright laws? What is copyright? Copyright is protection over the way an idea or information is expressed. It is not the idea or expression that is protected, meaning […]

How fit are you, legally?

Working as a Fitness Professional (FP) can be a rewarding career in helping others achieve their health and fitness goals, but the responsibilities also carry a number of substantial and potential legal and business risks, so it is always a good idea to check that you, and your business, are as well protected as you […]

Crowd-sourced funding for start-ups and SMEs – offering shares to retail investors

From 29 September 2017, public companies may offer ordinary shares to retail investors under the equity-based crowd-sourced funding regime through a licensed CSF intermediary’s platform. The CSF amendment will allow small to medium-sized businesses and start-ups to raise capital by issuing shares to retail investors without the regulatory burden of traditional fundraising provided that the […]

Proposed new Insurance Code of Practice for Superannuation Trustees

On 20 September 2017, the Insurance in Superannuation Working Group (ISWG) released a draft Insurance Code of Practice for Superannuation Trustees (Code). The objective of the proposed Code is to improve the insurance in superannuation offered to fund members and to regulate group insurance in superannuation, particularly its automatic issuance on an opt-out basis. The […]

ACCC increases franchisor scrutiny

Under the Franchising Code of Conduct (FCC) a franchisor is obliged to update a disclosure document which has been issued previously to a franchisee within 4 months after the end of each financial year. Recent proceedings initiated by the ACCC suggest an increasing focus on and scrutiny of disclosure obligations in the protection of franchisees. Disclosure […]

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