federal court

 SpaceX was accused by the US labor board of illegally firing eight employees over an internal letter sharply critical of Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against SpaceX Wednesday, alleging that the company illegally interrogated, surveilled and retaliated against workers, agency spokesperson Kayla Blado said in an email. The fired workers include authors of a 2022 open letter protesting “inappropriate, disparaging, sexually charged comments on…

Australia's competition regulator said that its lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.'s Google, in which it alleged consumers were misled about the expanded use of personal data for targeted advertising, had been dismissed by a court. The proceedings, initiated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in July 2020, alleged Google did not explicitly take consent from users about a change made in 2016 that combined personal information in Google accounts with activity on non-Google sites that use its technology to…

Australia's competition watchdog said that Alphabet Inc's Google unit was ordered by the country's Federal Court to pay A$60 million ($42.7 million) in penalties for misleading users on the collection of their personal location data. The court found Google misled some customers about personal location data collected through their Android mobile devices between January 2017 and December 2018. Google misled users into believing the "location history" setting on their Android phones was the only way location data could be…

An Australian judge recently ordered Samsung to pay 14 million Australian dollars ($9.8 million) in penalties for misleading advertising over how water-resistant some models of smartphones are. Federal Court Justice Brendan Murphy gave Samsung Electronics Australia, a subsidiary of South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co., 30 days to pay the fines. Samsung must also pay AU$200,000 ($140,000) toward the costs of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the consumer watchdog that initiated an investigation of…

An Australian court on Monday (June 6) ordered Google to pay a former politician 715,000 Australian dollars ($515,000) over two defamatory YouTube videos. John Barilaro, the former New South Wales state deputy premier, had sued Google and comedian Jordan Shanks, also known as friendlyjordies, in the Federal Court over the videos. Justice Steven Rares found Barilaro had been the "subject of a relentless, racist, abusive and defamatory campaign conducted on YouTube," a platform owned by Google. Barilaro told reporters…

SYDNEY: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Monday started legal proceedings in the Federal Court against Mastercard for allegedly stifling competition in the supply of debit card acceptance services.The consumer watchdog said in a statement that it has instituted proceedings against Mastercard Asia/Pacific Pte Ltd and Mastercard Asia/Pacific (Australia) Pty Ltd.Mastercard's alleged anti-competitive conduct commenced in late 2017 in the context of the Reserve Bank of Australia's "least cost…