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Australia

On 31 January 2023, Don George Evans of Woodlands, Western Australia, was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Western Australia to 12 months' imprisonment. Mr Evans will be released immediately upon entering into a recognisance of AUD5000, to be of good behaviour for two years.

BIScom Subsection: 

The ACCC’s 2022/23 compliance and enforcement priorities include manipulative or deceptive advertising in the digital economy, environmental claims and sustainability, and disruptions to global and domestic supply chains.

BIScom Subsection: 

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) has today withdrawn charges against Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Limited (Citigroup), Deutsche Bank AG and four senior banking executives.

BIScom Subsection: 

A joint investigation by Four Corners, the flagship investigative series by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and newspapers The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald uncovered widespread allegations of medical malpractice against Dr Daniel Lanzer, a "celebrity" plastic surgeon.

Luke Raven, Compliance Manager with Wise, Australia, outlines the failures of the Senate Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre to come to terms with one of Australia's pet technology topics: fintechs.

FCRO Subsection: 

Hayley Joan Street of Richmond, Victoria has been disqualified from managing corporations for four years following her involvement in two failed companies.

CoNet Section: 

Norwegian-based, global, shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean AS (WWO) has pleaded guilty in the Australian Federal Court to criminal cartel conduct in a prosecution brought by the Australia on evidence obtained by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal, on the joint application of the parties, agreed to replace an order cancelling a liquidator's licence and replace it with a period of suspension and a further period during which he must not act as sole liquidator.

CoNet Section: 

Australia has once more taken action against an overseas corporation in respect of the terms and conditions it imposes on purchasers in Australia.

Is Australia's approach to policing e-commerce workable in a global economy?

CoNet Section: 

Dots, here's a line. We hope you like being joined up.

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has "granted authorisation" for a scheme to collect and recycle batteries. The scheme, known as "The Battery Stewardship Council," was originally launched in 2918. In December 2017, Elon Musk's Tesla company installed the then biggest Lithium-Ion battery in the world in South Australia. This week, it's been announced that its size has been increased.

Fraud committed against Chinese in Australia has been a problem for a while as criminals use a variety of tactics. It is known, for example, that young foreign Mandarin speakers are recruited abroad to visit Australia for short periods, affecting tourism status, where they follow a script to commit fraud or extortion in a way similar to the boiler-room scams often run by Europeans in South East Asia. This year is is already far worse than the whole of last year.

FCRO Subsection: 

There are three things that provide clear links between Italy and Australia. There are the coffee shops: across much of Australia, the spread of American coffee chains has been stopped in its tracks by the loyalty customers show to to the generations of Italians who have made, for some, Australia the coffee capital of the world.

Australia is big. Seriously big. It is also empty. Seriously empty. With an estimated 90% of its population clustered into a handful of coastal cities (and some of those being small compared to Sydney and Melbourne), the cost of doing business can be disproportionately high in provincial and rural areas. One might think that would favour the internet and, for non-perishable, non-urgent things that's probably true although, as in many countries, the cost of delivery dramatically ramps up the cost of products in sparsely populated areas. What happens when towns become too small to support reasonable returns for businesses? Logic says "close up or combine." Australian regulators question that policy.

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) has issued a notice opposing a "merger" proposal involving TPG Telecom Limited (TPG) and Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Ltd (Vodafone). The reasons include that TPG has been "disruptive" in a complacent market and is "the best prospect Australia has for a new mobile network operator to enter the market." But it's a far more complex picture than that.

CoNet Section: 

Australian financial services giant AMP and its solicitors Clayton Utz have "surrendered" in their objections to producing notes of meetings which they claimed were subject to legal professional privilege. ASIC's position is simple: it has wide ranging powers to compel the release of documents and it will accept only a narrow and strict definition of legal professional privilege.

CoNet Section: 

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