Mallesons is acting for Woolworths in its Federal Court fight this week, defending its "Prices Dropped" program, with the ACCC alleging discounts on Tim Tams, Oreos and Lucky Dog bones were never real. Eleven managers face the witness stand, Robert Yezerski SC leads the defence, and the "baby-faced assassin" Michael Hodge QC is swinging for the other side: The Age

⚖️ Corporate: The Full Federal Court has confirmed that "payment" under s 588FDA of the Corporations Act means more than just a flow of value, in that it must actually alter the legal rights and obligations between the alleged payer and payee. In Yang v Wong, a $2.8m payment routed through an intermediary entity to a director's mother didn't qualify as an unreasonable director-related transaction, because Axis North never changed its legal relationship with Ms Wong directly. The practical lesson: where the payment structure involves an intermediary, s 588FDA may not stick, so plead s 588FB uncommercial transaction in the alternative: Lexology

⚖️ Employment: The Fair Work Commission has issued a road transport contractual chain order (RTCCO) requiring fuel cost increases, measured against 6 March 2026 prices, to be passed through supply chains fortnightly. The order commenced 21 April 2026 and follows emergency amendments to the Fair Work Act triggered by Middle East conflict-related fuel price surges. It covers primary and secondary parties across road transport chains, overriding existing contract terms. Non-compliance is a civil penalty offence: Mallesons

⚖️ IP: AI is quietly creating patentability traps for innovators. Lander & Rogers points to two risks that stand out. First, novelty: generative AI draws on existing datasets, meaning comparable prompts across different users can produce near-identical outputs, and worse, inputting your own research into an AI tool may inadvertently push that material into the public domain via third-party outputs, polluting the prior art before you've filed. Second, inventorship: Australian law requires a natural person as inventor, so as AI takes on a more substantive role in conception, identifying a qualifying human contributor becomes genuinely difficult: Lander & Rogers

NSW Premier Chris Minns is refusing to back down after the Court of Appeal unanimously struck down his post-Bondi anti-protest laws as unconstitutional, insisting they were "rational and proportionate." The full bench found the laws "impermissibly burdened" the implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication. They ruled that suppressing all public assemblies to protect "social cohesion" after a terror attack isn't a legitimate constitutional purpose. NSW Police are now reviewing charges against 26 protesters arrested under laws that no longer exist: ABC News, The Guardian

Victoria's making public transport free for May, then half-price for the rest of the year, at a cost of around $432m. It's a direct response to fuel prices going haywire off the back of the Iran conflict, plus a refinery fire that's got everyone nervous about local supply - so that’s some good news: Bloomberg

🏠 AustralianSuper has thrown its hat in the ring for a stake in Secure Electronic Registries Victoria, Victoria's $3bn land titles registry, hiring JPMorgan to advise. The $410bn fund faces stiff competition from favourite Macquarie Asset Management and Canadian pension OMERS, with first-round bids due imminently: The Australian

🧬 Monash IVF has knocked back an improved 90-cents-per-share takeover bid from Genesis Capital and Soul Patts, calling it a "substantial discount" to comparable Aussie IVF deals, despite shares last trading at 76.5 cents. The board's backing new CEO Victoria Atkinson's turnaround strategy instead. Clayton Utz is acting for Monash IVF: Capital Brief

🎙️ Quadrant is running a sale process for MediaWorks, its New Zealand radio, digital audio and outdoor advertising business, with Jarden NZ running the book and non-binding bids due 30 April: AFR