The recent amendment to the test for dishonesty in the Corporations Act 2001, which lowers the burden on the prosecution will have implications for the concept of 'community expectations' into the criminal law. ...

With negotiations underway for the free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union (the A-EU FTA), Australian businesses that produce, buy or sell EU and non-EU food, agricultural goods and spirit drinks have to confront the possibility that Australia will agree to give much stronger protection to the names of hundreds of EU products that indicate their geographical origin. We look at some of the key issues in the EU's proposal that would impact Australian businesses' operations and IP portfolios, and consider some of the agreed compromise positions in the EU's other recent FTAs. ...

The Australian Government has tabled the Crimes Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Bill 2019 (the 2019 Bill) in the Senate, and the Attorney-General's Department has released Draft Guidance on the steps a body corporate can take to prevent an associate from bribing foreign public officials for public consultation (the Draft Guidance). Like the 2017 version of the Bill that lapsed earlier this year (the 2017 Bill), if passed, the 2019 Bill will strengthen Australia's foreign bribery laws, including by introducing a new corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery by an associate, and will introduce a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) scheme for resolving serious corporate criminal matters. Partner Rachel Nicolson, Senior Associate Andrew Wilcock and Associate Lewis Winter report on the key differences between the 2017 and 2019 Bills, and the content of the Draft Guidance. ...

In this update we summarise the progress of new and existing rule change requests across the months of July and August and take a closer look at the AER's review into the values of customer reliability. ...

In this update we summarise the progress of new and existing rule change requests across the month of April and take a closer look at the new Default Market Offer (New South Wales, South Australia and South-Eastern Queensland) and Victorian Default Offer regulations that will commence on 1 July 2019 ...

In Touch looks at what's been happening in Competition this month and what it means for your business ...

Two recent trade mark cases have widened the field of marks that are potentially registerable in Australia on the basis that those marks are inherently adapted to distinguish. ...

There is lots of noise about the duties of financial advisers and lawyers including us love to debate whether FoFA has left any room for fiduciary obligations ...

In Touch looks at what's been happening in Competition this month and what it means for your business ...

In Touch looks at what's been happening in Competition this month and what it means for your business ...