hipages Group Pty Ltd [2016] FCA 986

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

hipages Group Pty Ltd [2016] FCA 986 File number: NSD 1224 of 2016

Judge: PERRY J

Date of judgment: 18 August 2016

Catchwords: DISCOVERY – preliminary discovery to ascertain description of respondent under r 7.22 of the Federal Court Rules 2011 (Cth)

Legislation: Federal Court Rules 2011 (Cth) r 7.22 Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) Sch 2

Date of hearing: 18 August 2016

Registry: New South Wales

Division: General Division

National Practice Area: Commercial and Corporations

Sub-area: Regulator and Consumer Protection

Category: Catchwords

Number of paragraphs: 26

Counsel for the Prospective Applicants: Mr R Yezerski

Solicitor for the Prospective Applicants: Whittens & McKeough

ORDERS NSD 1224 of 2016

HIPAGES GROUP PTY LTD ACN 112 872 009 First Prospective Applicant

HIPAGES.COM.AU PTY LTD ACN 109 996 134 Second Prospective Applicant

JUDGE: PERRY J DATE OF ORDER: 18 AUGUST 2016

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. Orders be made in terms of the short minutes of order annexed to the prospective applicants' submissions dated 17 August 2016 as amended at the hearing. Note: Entry of orders is dealt with in Rule 39.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011.

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

(Revised from Transcript)

PERRY J:

1. INTRODUCTION 1 By an originating application dated 28 July 2016, the prospective applicants, hipages Group Pty Ltd and hipages.com.au Pty Ltd (collectively, Hipages) seek orders pursuant to r 7.22(1) and 7.22(2)(c) of the Federal Court Rules 2011 (Cth) (Rules) to ascertain the description of certain prospective respondents. 2 Given the nature of the application, there is no respondent to the proceeding. Rather, the orders are sought against two other persons, National Postal Services Pty Ltd (National Postal Services) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ Bank). In advance of the hearing, ANZ Bank indicated that it did not oppose the orders sought in the originating application and on that basis did not appear at the hearing. National Postal Services also did not appear at the hearing and, while they did not give any indication to the Court as to whether the orders were opposed, as explained below I am satisfied that they have been served with the application and other documents relied on by Hipages in support of the application.