Compliance & Ethics

On Tuesday, the Australian Federal Court ordered Harvey Norman Holdings and Latitude Finance Australia to pay a combined $35.9 million (AUD $55 million) after finding they engaged in misleading conduct and made false or misleading representations in a nationwide advertising campaign that ran between January 2020 and August 2021. Harvey Norman was ordered to pay $22.8 million (AUD $35 million), while Latitude was ordered to pay $13.1 million (AUD $20 million). According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the combined penalty is among the largest it has secured in a case involving misleading conduct related to financial products and services.

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has opened proceedings against several companies involved in condo hotel developments, alleging they misled consumers about investment returns while failing to explain the costs and risks that could emerge long after the brochures had been put away. The investigations also challenge contract terms that, according to the regulator, deprived owners of meaningful control over properties they had purchased and punished those who tried to exercise it.

Dallas-based Magnolia Diagnostics, its owners, and a group of investors have agreed to pay the United States $24 million to resolve allegations that the laboratory billed Medicare for thousands of medically unnecessary respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) tests performed on seniors undergoing COVID-19 testing. Of that total, Magnolia and its owners will pay $19.2 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act, while investors will pay a further $4.8 million to resolve civil claims for unjust enrichment, payment by mistake, and claims under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act arising from distributions they received from the company.

In two decisions under the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), the Commission fined Google a combined €890 million, finding that the company unlawfully favored its own services in Google Search while also preventing app developers from freely steering customers toward alternative purchasing channels outside Google Play. The penalties amount to €460 million for Google's search practices and €430 million for its Play Store policies.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority found that Tabcorp Holdings' wagering business repeatedly breached Australia's telemarketing rules while marketing to VIP customers. The regulator identified 351 calls made to numbers listed on the Do Not Call Register without consent, 82 calls placed outside legally permitted hours, and nearly 4,000 calls in which TAB failed to properly identify itself, the purpose of the call, or both.

NeoGenomics, the Florida-based laboratory company, has agreed to pay $9.81 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by providing consulting services below fair market value to healthcare providers whose business it hoped to win and by paying independent consultants in ways that rewarded them for generating referrals. The settlement, announced Monday, resolves the government's civil claims and recognizes what happened after the conduct came to light as much as the conduct itself.

KPMG Australia has sanctioned seven employees after an internal investigation concluded that confidential client information was improperly shared inside the firm, a finding that stands in marked contrast to the firm's earlier position that previous inquiries had failed to substantiate wrongdoing.