On 17 March 2015, Justice Middleton of the Federal Court handed down his decision in Verrocchi and Gance –v- Direct Chemist Outlet Pty Ltd  (ACN 123 831 210) and Ian Tauman.

A total of $8.3 million in penalties was imposed by the Federal Court upon two forklift gas supply companies, Renegade Gas Pty Ltd (Renegade), Speed-E-Gas (NSW) Pty Ltd (Speed-E-Gas) and three individuals of the two companies, for engaging in cartel conduct restricting competition.

Discretionary trusts are widely used in modern-day business and are generally understood as efficient structures for asset protection and tax minimisation.  The obligations of trustees in administering trusts, particularly with regard to providing reasons for their decisions to beneficiaries, are less well understood.

Many small to medium sized businesses face disputes between shareholders.  Often these shareholders are family members.  Shareholder disputes are notoriously expensive to resolve and typically take the form of “oppression” claims commenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria under the provisions of s 233 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).  Although individual disputes will differ, all these disputes have in common allegations that the affairs of a company have been conducted in an oppressive manner.