Commissioner of Taxation v PricewaterhouseCoopers [2022] FCA 278

In late March 2022, after a five-day virtual hearing conducted using Microsoft Teams, the Federal Court of Australia delivered a highly anticipated judgment in a long-running privilege dispute between the Commissioner of Taxation (the Commissioner) and PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia (PwC) and its clients, Flora Green Pty Limited, and JBS Australia Pty Limited, finding that only some of the documents for which PwC claimed legal professional privilege (privilege) were accurately withheld.

Birchfield v Birchfield Holdings Limited [2021] NZCA 428

The Court of Appeal considered recently the issue of a minority shareholder’s rights in a case where the minority shareholder refused to accept buy-out offers and then claimed the company had acted in an unfairly prejudicial manner towards him. In so doing, the Court of Appeal also provided useful guidance on how the majority can use the summary judgment fast track procedure to buy out the minority.

CBL Insurance Ltd (Liq) v Harris [2021] NZHC 1393

The High Court has recently confirmed in the context of a strike out application the enforceability of exclusion and limitation of liability clauses commonly found in the standard terms of engagement of professional services firms.

Lodge Real Estate Limited v Commerce Commission [2020] NZSC 25

The Supreme Court has recently delivered its judgment in the Trade Me/real estate agents price-fixing case, making this the final episode (on liability at least). Two Hamilton real estate agencies lost their seven-year battle against price-fixing allegations by the Commerce Commission.

R v Southern Boundary Wines Ltd (in liq) [2020] NZHC 514

Two directors and an employee of Southern Boundary Wines Ltd (Southern Boundary) have been sentenced along with the company itself for charges under the Wine Act 2003 involving deception and selling and exporting non-compliant wines. This is the third sentencing to occur under the Act.