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 8 June 2026
Main law guides
297
Acts, regulations and codes worth reading first
Topics
22
Plain-English clusters
Published case explainers
496
Selected cases with a business lesson
Tracked updates
110
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 helpAstraZeneca AB v Pharmacor Pty Ltd (No 3)
If your business is in a patent dispute, treat pleadings as part of your commercial strategy, not just court paperwork. This case draws a practical line between...
AUSTRAC v Princeton Securities
AML/CTF reporting duties are not optional housekeeping. If a reporting entity stays enrolled and does not tell AUSTRAC it has ceased providing designated services,...
Australian Agrivision Pty Ltd v Wolstenholme (Vacate Trial)
The safest reading of this case is that commercial parties should prepare for the listed hearing in the court they are actually in, rather than assuming related...
Australian Agrivision v Wolstenholme
Personal guarantees and urgent bridging finance can create brutal exposure. Directors, founders and property operators should not sign guarantees unless they...
Australian Fulin Agriculture derivative action
A shareholder cannot always force the company to sue just because there may be a claim. Derivative-action applications turn on good faith, serious question, costs...
Australian LinkedIn v Registrar of Trade Marks
A company usually cannot run Federal Court proceedings through a director or shareholder just because paying lawyers is inconvenient. Trade mark appeals and IP...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v BSF Solutions Pty Ltd (Evidence Rulings)
If your business is defending a regulator case in the Federal Court, do not assume a concise statement works like a tightly confined pleading. The Court said the...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Insurance Australia Limited
If your business needs a sensitive report after a regulator query, pricing concern, compliance issue or possible breach, involve lawyers early and define the legal...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Keystone Asset Management Ltd (receivers and managers appointed) (in liquidation) (No 4)
If your business receives, holds or transfers investor money, trust money or project funds, keep a clean documentary trail showing whose money it was, why it moved...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Marco (No 21)
If your business is involved in court proceedings, treat filed documents as strategically important assets and risks. A later-appointed liquidator, receiver or...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v NGS Crypto Pty Ltd (No 6)
Read this case as a procedural warning. If ASIC obtains substantive relief against your company, or if you bring an interlocutory application and lose, a separate...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Palmer
Read this case as a warning against treating pleadings as a technical afterthought. If your business is bringing or defending a serious claim that depends on...
Australian Strategic Materials scheme
A scheme of arrangement is a controlled court-supervised path for a major acquisition, not just a shareholder vote. Companies planning an exit need a clean scheme...
Baillie Wines v Camden Council
Agritourism and farm-gate concepts are not magic labels. If a business wants planning approval for food, drink, accommodation or events on rural land, the proposed...
Bilal v Ampol Australia Petroleum
Employment litigation often becomes a document fight before it becomes a witness fight. Employers should preserve records early, use clear discovery searches,...
Birch, in the matter of Vitrinite
When a business group collapses, creditors need more than a headline answer. Administrators must work out employee entitlements, secured creditor positions, asset...
Black Star Pastry v Richards
Brand ownership should be sorted before registration, licensing or expansion. If two people own a mark together, one person registering it alone can make the...
Bodum v H.A.G Import
Copying the look of a competitor's product is risky, but the law still asks what consumers are likely to understand. Packaging, labelling, brand names and the...
Bolton v Keybridge Capital
Derivative actions are not a shortcut for restarting a control fight. A shareholder, former director or founder who wants to sue in the company's name needs...
Bonney v Watarra Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (No 3)
If a dispute is really about a regulator accepting registration documents, the legal focus may need to be on the regulator’s decision rather than the corporation...
Bredenkamp, in the matter of Ultima United
Company directors cannot assume being overseas puts insolvency examinations out of reach. Liquidators can seek overseas service and substituted service orders,...
Britten v eBroker.com.au Pty Ltd
Read this case as a warning about litigation conduct. The Court's focus was not on who was right about the underlying finance dispute. It was on whether the...
Brydi v Southern Cross Payments
Investor claims can proceed even where regulators have already litigated related facts. Companies, auditors and founders should assume financial reports, audit...
Bunter v Hardy, in the matter of FT Sydney
Commercial confidentiality in litigation needs evidence, precision and a real link to the administration of justice. A party cannot simply point to a confidential...
Campbell v McIntyre
Online disputes can become urgent ACL and reputation litigation. If a commercial dispute spills into videos, articles, WhatsApp groups or investor communications,...
Cannatrek scheme approval
Shareholder votes do not erase late disclosure issues. If a regulated risk changes during a transaction, boards should update the market, tell members clearly and...
Capic v Ford
Consumer guarantee exposure can travel beyond the first sale, but the chain of title and the type of resale matter. Businesses selling products through dealers,...
Care A2 Plus v a2 Milk
Brand names that look descriptive can still be protected if consumers understand them as badges of origin. Before launching a name close to a competitor's mark,...
Castel Electronics indemnity costs
Settlement deeds, indemnities and novations need to say exactly who carries the risk after a transaction. If the wording and surrounding conduct leave room for...
Cayzer v Phoslock Environmental Technologies Ltd (Opt Out and Registration Notice)
Business owners should read this as a procedural warning. A representative proceeding can require your organisation to locate historical records, work with share...
Chambers v Broadway Homes
If a business settles a workplace dispute and brings someone back into the business, the new employment terms need to be written down clearly. Pay, role, duration,...
Chan v Moore
Director loan accounts are only as useful as the records behind them. If related-party money moves across borders, through family members or between connected...
CIP Group v So
Shareholder and joint-venture litigation can turn on who is authorised to sue for the company, whether late pleading changes are fair and whether the case still...
Clark v National Australia Bank Limited
If your business thinks a bank or other counterparty has acted wrongly, do not wait for every internal email, file note or admission before getting advice. This...
Clean Energy Regulator v Emerging Energy
Carbon, emissions and clean-energy schemes can keep generating regulatory risk after a company enters liquidation. Registry account controls, authorised...
Clearwater Logging liquidation
Employee underpayment claims can affect the whole liquidation waterfall. Creditors should watch how liquidators classify wage claims, because priority treatment can...