Business Law Library & Tracker
Selected Business Law Cases
Short explainers for court decisions that change how Australian businesses handle contracts, staff, customers, IP and company duties.
Sources last reviewed 9 Nov 2026
Main law guides
297
Acts, regulations and codes worth reading first
Topics
22
Plain-English clusters
Published case explainers
519
Selected cases with a business lesson
Tracked updates
137
New, amended & reviewed
Plain-English explainers, not legal advice. Use the linked official source for section-level detail, and get advice for your situation.
Get legal helpGGPG Pty Ltd (Receiver and Manager Appointed) v Golden Eagle Property Group Pty Ltd (No 2)
Business owners should read this as a case about litigation discipline in a complex property development dispute. If your position is that the wrong entity has...
Gillham v Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Pty Ltd (No 2)
Business owners should read this as a process and evidence case, not a final ruling on liability. If a worker alleges action was taken for a prohibited reason, the...
Global Capital Property Fund Limited (in liquidation) v Point Bay Developments Pty Ltd
Read this case as a warning about governance, records and litigation strategy. If your business enters a joint venture, project funding arrangement or variation...
Global Uranium and Enrichment Limited, in the matter of Global Uranium and Enrichment Limited
Business owners should read this case as a reminder that first-stage court approval in a scheme of arrangement is only permission to put the proposal to affected...
Greer v Bandjalang Aboriginal Corporation Prescribed Body Corporate RNTBC (No 3)
If your organisation is subject to an interim injunction, do not assume the order will remain in place unchanged until trial. A major governance event, such as the...
Haverkort v Qantas Airways Limited
Business owners should read this as a communications and privacy process case, not a final ruling on refund liability. If you need to contact customers about a...
Horizon Solsolutions Australia Pty Ltd v National Disability Insurance Agency
If your business depends on fast decisions from a government payment system, do not assume the usual turnaround time will continue once integrity concerns arise....
INPEX Operations Australia Pty Ltd v AkzoNobel NV (No 6)
If your business is in a technical court dispute, do not treat a referee's report as automatically final. Read it closely for terminology, assumptions and...
Intalo Group Pty Ltd v James Cook University
If your business is in a copyright or contract dispute, this case is a reminder to be disciplined about both drafting and litigation strategy. First, make sure your...
Jacksons Drawing Supplies Pty Ltd v Jackson's Art Supplies Ltd (No 2)
If you are launching or localising an online store for Australia, clear the brand early and test the whole customer journey for confusion. This case shows that...
Jonsson (Liquidator), in the matter of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation Transport and Community Service (in liq)
The practical point is not that the Court found misappropriation or voidable transactions had occurred. It did not. This was an investigation-stage ruling. The...
Kanevsky, in the matter of M.A Services Group Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed)
Read this case as an early administration procedure decision with a strong lease-management angle. The Court did not say leases stop mattering in administration. It...
Keybridge Capital Limited v Kirant Regional Media Investments Pty Ltd
If your business is putting money into an acquisition through another entity, document the commercial position precisely at the start. State who is the beneficial...
Latitude Finance Australia v Australian Securities and Investments Commission
For business owners, the safest approach is to test the advertisement against the real customer journey. Ask what the customer must actually do to get the promoted...
Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (No 2)
If a worker’s public comments trigger complaints, slow the decision down enough to separate legal grounds from commercial pressure. Check the contract, any...
Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Penalty)
Read this case in two stages. The earlier liability judgment decided that the ABC had broken the law. This penalty judgment decided how many contraventions there...
Leigh v National Disability Insurance Agency (Extension of Time and Leave to Appeal)
If your business needs confidentiality in Federal Court proceedings, do not assume sensitivity alone will be enough. Work out early exactly what protection is...
Lindrum v T&P Lindrum Pty Ltd
If your business wants to use a family name, historic venue name or acquired legacy brand, do not assume the issue is solved just because you bought the property or...
Liu v Miller-Kovacs, in the matter of Privato Enterprises Pty Limited
If you are buying or selling a company, do not treat a deposit note, a board minute and a Form 484 as enough. The safer approach is a written share sale agreement...
LK Law Pty Ltd v Karas (No 4)
If someone in your business is a director, partner, trustee, agent or de facto controller of a business stream, they should not privately position that stream for...
Macpherson v Warringah Bowling Club Ltd, in the matter of Warringah Bowling Club Ltd (No 2)
If your company is in voluntary administration and there is a real proposal to pay creditors in full and return the business to solvent trading, do not rely on...
Mansfield (Trustee), in the matter of Frugtniet v Frugtniet (Stay Applications)
Business owners should read this case as a procedural enforcement decision. The applicants were residential tenants, and the Court was not deciding ordinary leasing...
Marasol Pty Ltd v Philips
Read this case as a warning about litigation strategy, not as a final statement on liability. If your dispute is relatively modest in dollar terms, the Federal...
McGinn v Australian Information Commissioner (No 2)
Businesses should read this case as a reminder to separate three issues that often get mixed together in customer disputes: whether an event happened, whether a...
Michael Wilson & Partners Ltd v Cronan
Read this case as a warning about litigation management, not as a ruling that finally resolved the parties’ commercial claims. Goodman J made interlocutory orders...
Miciulis v Cimic Group Limited
Business owners should read this as a class action settlement approval case, not as a new statement of privacy law. The Court did not finally decide whether CIMIC...
Mining and Energy Union v OS MCAP Pty Ltd (No 3)
The practical lesson is to separate operational planning from legal compliance. You can run a business on public holidays and you can roster staff for those days,...
Monks v Pieman Resources Pty Ltd
Business owners should read this case as a procedure-first decision. It does not decide, on the material summarised here, whether the underlying allegations about...
Moroney v TM Insight Operations Pty Ltd
If you want a restraint to be enforceable, start with the commercial interest you are genuinely protecting. That may be customer connection, goodwill, confidential...
Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A v Arrotex Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd (Access Regime and Costs)
If your business is thinking about preliminary discovery, treat it as a special and expensive procedural step, not just an early version of ordinary litigation....
Norden Holdings Pty Ltd (Trustee) v Martens Investments Pty Ltd (Trustee), in the matter of Amazonia IP Holdings Pty Ltd (No 6)
Read this case as a warning about court process, not as a general statement that privacy lets businesses withhold records. The court treated the real problem as...
Norden Holdings Pty Ltd (Trustee) v Martens Investments Pty Ltd (Trustee), in the matter of Amazonia IP Holdings Pty Ltd (No 7)
Treat court-ordered document production as a managed compliance task with named responsibility, deadlines and verification. This case was not about a party simply...
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd v Sun Pharma ANZ Pty Ltd
The practical message is not that formulation patents are worthless. It is that a valid formulation patent and a valid patent term extension are different things....
Oxford Nanopore Technologies Plc v MGI Australia Pty Ltd (No 2)
If your business is considering a patent claim but still needs samples, documents or technical material to decide whether to sue, preliminary discovery can be a...
Palmer v Australian Securities and Investments Commission
If your company, director or officer is under investigation and criminal charges later follow, do not assume a separate civil proceeding is the best place to attack...
Pennytel Australia Pty Limited v Engelke
Business owners should read this case as an evidence and drafting case, not as authority that customer departures alone prove wrongdoing. Pennytel alleged that...