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 helpAustralian Retirement Trust Pty Ltd ATF Australian Retirement Trust v Buckland
Read this case as a contract administration warning. Start with the exact words that fix the trigger. Here, the decisive wording referred to the date on which a...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (Retail Cases Omnibus)
The commercial lesson from this case is that customer promises, compliance obligations and operational controls have to line up. ANZ’s admitted conduct was spread...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (Treasury Bonds Case)
Business owners should read this as a case about conduct matching representations. ANZ had represented that it would be transparent with the AOFM, yet the court...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v BPS Financial Pty Ltd
If your business is launching a payment or wallet product under someone else's AFSL, do not assume the structure works just because there is an authorised...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Darranda Pty Ltd (Penalty)
The main lesson is to test the legal substance of your customer arrangement, not just its label. If a customer gets goods now and pays over time, your document may...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Green County Pty Ltd (Penalty)
If your business provides consumer loans, vendor finance or credit assistance, this case is a strong reminder to check the legal character of what you are doing...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v HCF Life Insurance Company Pty Limited (Penalty)
For businesses, the main lesson is to test customer-facing wording against the law that actually governs the product, not just against the text of the contract. If...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v iSignthis Limited (Costs)
Business owners should read this case as a reminder that costs are a major part of litigation exposure. If a regulator or other claimant succeeds on the main case,...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v iSignthis Limited (Penalty)
The main lesson is that listed-company disclosure problems often arise from delay, incomplete explanations and overconfidence that an issue can be managed...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Macrolend Pty Ltd (No 3)
A business cannot avoid financial services regulation by describing an investment as a loan or promissory note if, in substance, the arrangement is a debenture, a...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Money3 Loans Pty Ltd (No 3)
The practical message for business owners is that responsible lending compliance is built file by file. If your business lends to consumers, the court's attention...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Open4Sale Global Ltd (No 2)
If your company is offering shares in Australia, do not assume fundraising compliance can be fixed later. This case involved admitted breaches of section 727(6)...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v RAMS Financial Group Pty Ltd
Read this case as a warning about both procedure and compliance. On procedure, a business affected by a regulator case may still be shut out if it cannot show the...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v RAMS Financial Group Pty Ltd (Penalty)
Business owners should read this case as a governance and operating-model decision, not just a referral-law decision. RAMS had a franchise-based credit distribution...
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v TerraCom Limited (No 2)
If your business, directors or senior staff are defending a regulator claim, do not assume that winning means the other side will reimburse most of your legal costs...
Australian Steel Manufacturing Pty Ltd v Selection Steel Trading Pty Ltd
Business owners should read this as a contract management case as much as an insolvency case. If you want your standard terms to govern future trading, make that...
AxiCorp Financial Services Pty Ltd v CABC (No 3)
If your business is in litigation, do not assume a settlement deed can clean up the court file after the event. This case shows the court may permit documents to be...
Bain v International Capital Markets Pty Ltd (No 4)
Business owners should read this as a data minimisation case as much as a privacy case. The Court did not decide the merits of the underlying class action. It...
Bakers Delight Holdings Ltd v Fair Work Ombudsman
For business owners, the plain English point is this: missing payroll records can change who has to prove what in court. Under s 557C, if an employer was required...
BCI Media Group Pty Ltd v CoreLogic Australia Pty Ltd (Amendment and Strikeout)
The practical message is that pleadings, particulars and expert evidence must work together from an early stage. A business cannot safely assume that an expert...
BCI Media Group Pty Ltd v CoreLogic Australia Pty Ltd (Review of Registrar’s Decision)
If your business is in a court dispute, this case is a reminder to get the pleading right early. You need to state the material facts clearly enough to give fair...
BDR21 v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (No 3)
Read this case as a warning against casual reuse of litigation documents. The Court did not give a general right to repurpose discovered material. It granted a...
Bickford’s Australia Pty Ltd v Trink Tank Pty Ltd
Treat court selection, timing and claim structure as part of your substantive brand strategy, not as an afterthought. In this case, the real commercial fight about...
Bilal v Ampol Limited
Business owners should read this as a procedure-heavy but very practical case. It does not say whistleblower claims are weak. It says they must be pleaded and...
Bilal v EML NSW Limited
If your business is sued over whistleblower protections, workplace rights representations or alleged personal involvement by managers, start with two separate...
BlueScope Steel Limited v Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Businesses should read this case as a warning about pricing communications that go beyond announcing your own prices and move into trying to shape how others price...
Bowcher (liquidator), in the matter of Blacktrans Express Pty Ltd (in liq) v Black
If your company enters liquidation, do not treat company books, passwords, keys, vehicles, trailers, plant or records as if they remain yours to hold back, sort out...
Butler v Total Tools Holdings Pty Ltd
If your business wants to reward a director, executive or adviser with equity on a future sale or IPO, use a full written incentive agreement and make the corporate...
Byrnes (Administrator), in the matter of Salads of Australia Pty Limited (Receivers and Managers Appointed) (Administrators Appointed)
If your business is facing a distressed sale, do not assume the standard administration timetable will suit the transaction. This case shows that an extension can...
Caporaso Pty Ltd v Mercato Centrale Australia Pty Ltd (No 3)
If your business is thinking about suing for trade mark infringement, do not only ask whether the other side's branding looks too similar. Also ask whether your own...
Cathro, in the matter of Stormon Industries Pty Ltd (in liq)
If your business trades through a corporate trustee, do not assume insolvency will be administered in the same way as an ordinary company with assets in its own...
CIP Group Pty Ltd v So (No 10)
If your company is bringing a major claim and has limited assets, do not assume that once security for costs is ordered the issue is finished. The Court may...
CleanFin Pty Ltd v Forest Carbon Methodology Pty Ltd (No 2)
Read this case as a warning about governance, profit flows and litigation readiness. If directors are involved in multiple entities, keep clear records showing...
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation v Urrbrae Foods Pty Ltd
If your business wants broad patent protection, make sure the specification does more than describe a promising example. It should disclose a workable technical...
Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia v Endeavour Energy Network Management Pty Ltd
Do not assume your overtime settings are safe just because they have been used for years without challenge. In this case, the employer’s long-standing daily method...
CPC Patent Technologies Pty Ltd v Apple Pty Limited (No 2)
If your business is considering patent litigation, this case is a reminder that costs can be carved up issue by issue. Losing the infringement claim does not...