Insights

On 15 October 2025, the ACCC and the Australian Energy Regulator released their joint Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2025. But it’s not just a recap – it’s a warning. Sweeping merger reforms, intensified enforcement and digital oversight are here.

The Microsoft case follows a broader global trend targeting manipulative tactics that lure customers into subscriptions that they don’t understand or intend to sign up for, or make cancelling and switching subscription plans unnecessarily difficult.

he prohibition against resale price maintenance is extremely broad and has implications for all businesses which supply goods to distributors or retailers in Australia.

On 20 October 2025, ASX released a consultation paper seeking feedback on potential reforms to the ASX Listing Rules to expand shareholder approval requirements for certain equity funded transactions. Feedback is also being sought about listing status changes and delistings by dual-listed companies.

Two significant reforms have been introduced to the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (Act) by the 2025 Amendment Bill (Bill), relating to orphan works and remote learning

In the recent decision of ASIC v Open4Sale Global Ltd (No 2) [2025] FCA 1038, the Federal Court ordered civil penalties totalling $2.8 million and disqualification orders against two company directors for making offers of shares on 101 occasions without complying with the disclosure obligations under Chapter 6D.2 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).

Australian Clinical Labs ordered to pay $5.8 million in relation to a data breach suffered by its Medilab Pathology business.

The Fair Work Commission has ruled in favour of a Westpac employee’s request to work remotely on a full-time basis.

Australia’s Privacy Commissioner recently determined that Kmart Australia Limited’s (Kmart) use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in 28 stores between June 2020 and July 2022 unlawfully interfered with individuals’ privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Treasury’s proposed reforms will make cancelling subscriptions as simple as sign-up, reshaping how businesses engage with consumers. Read on to understand what your business can do to prepare.

In Habermann v Cook Shire Council, Justice Henry of the Supreme Court of Queensland found that an employer’s duty of care to its employees extends to the conduct of third parties where that conduct poses a foreseeable risk of psychiatric injury to an employee. This includes the publication of defamatory statements about the employee.