White v Baycorp Advantage Business Information Services Ltd [2006] NSWSC 441

200 FLR 125 Reported Decision : (2006) Aust Contract Reports 90-240 (2006) 24 ACLC 969

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : White v Baycorp Advantage Business Information Services Ltd [2006] NSWSC 441 This decision has been amended. Please see the end of the judgment for a list of the amendments.

HEARING DATE(S) : 8 & 9 May 2006

JUDGMENT DATE : 18 May 2006

JURISDICTION : Equity

JUDGMENT OF : Campbell J

DECISION : Entries in credit reference bureau database misleading and deceptive. Injunctions requiring removal granted.

CATCHWORDS : CONTRACTS – PARTICULAR PARTIES – principal and agent – undisclosed principal – contract inherently incapable of being entered as agent for an undisclosed principal – need for agent to have actual authority to enter contract on behalf of undisclosed principal at the time contract is made – TRADE PRACTICES AND RELATED MATTERS – consumer protection – criteria for deciding whether a representation is misleading and deceptive – whether necessary for a person making an implied representation to know that it was incorrect at the time it was made before it can be misleading and deceptive – whether all false statements are misleading and deceptive – CORPORATIONS – miscellaneous cases – effect of deregistration – effect of reinstatement of registration – extent to which effect of reinstatement is retrospective – TORTS – MISCELLANEOUS TORTS – other economic torts – injurious falsehood – element of malice – DAMAGES – causation – role of "but for" test – shifting the onus of adducing evidence

Company Law Review Act 1998 (Cth) Company Law Review Bill 1997 LEGISLATION CITED : Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) Corporations Law Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth)