Knowledge

Australian M&A activity has had a solid start in 2017, with Mergermarket reporting 107 deals amounting to $28.3bn in value in Q1, up more than 50% in value compared to the same period last year.  But in an uncertain world, it is crucial for buyers and sellers to limit their risk exposure when entering M&A transactions. 

The High Court of Australia recently handed down its highly anticipated decision in Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd [2016] HCA 49.

The idea of “cartels” is not normally associated with businesses that engage in the provision of lawful goods or services, however the priorities of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (known as the ACCC) suggest otherwise. 

In social media, it is sometimes hard to work out whether information about a product or service is genuinely the opinion of a third party, or whether it has been encouraged or positioned by an undisclosed advertiser. 

Mergers and acquisitions play an important role in the economy, allowing companies to take advantage of synergies to achieve business efficiency, build expertise and services, and diversify risk. At the same time, consumers benefit from maintaining and encouraging healthy competition between businesses selling goods and services to ensure that prices remain affordable.

Australian persons – whether corporate or individual – and Australian government agencies will soon have to shoulder new responsibilities for a data breach occurring anywhere in the world. On 13 February the Government passed new laws said to constitute “some of the most stringent disclosure laws in the world”.¹

Businesses engaged in cross-border transactions and investments are often exposed to unanticipated liability under the laws and regulations of foreign countries. Businesses that have an incomplete understanding of the laws and regulations of the jurisdictions where they operate can be subject to unnecessary legal, reputational and financial risks that often have damaging consequences. 

In a landmark trade mark ruling from the Beijing High People’s Court, Treasury Wine Estates (“TWE”), the owner of the ‘Penfolds’ wine brand, has successfully challenged the registration of the lucrative ‘Ben Fu’ trade mark which had been registered by a well-known ‘trade mark squatter’ in China. 

The Supreme Court of Victoria has held that an Airbnb arrangement is a lease. On that basis the activity of the tenants in letting out their apartment was found to be in breach of a prohibition in their lease against subletting. 

Australia has long debated the notion that it could be a significant repository for the warehousing and containment of the world’s nuclear waste. That possibility has re-emerged, with the State Government of South Australia again considering a proposal to build a nuclear waste disposal facility in its remote desert environs.