New powers to fine businesses in breach of Franchise Code; Sydney designer joins Apple: Midday Roundup

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will have the power to fine businesses that breach the Franchise Code of Conduct, after legislation was passed in the Senate last week.

The watchdog will be able to penalise both franchisors and franchisees to the value of $8500 or seek a civil penalty of up to $51,000 by a court.

The bill passed the Senate on Thursday, after previously passing the House of Representatives in late August, and had strong support from both sides of politics.

The legislation will pave the way for changes to the franchise code expected to come into effect on January 1, 2015.

Sydney designer joins Apple

Acclaimed Sydney-born designer Marc Newson has been headhunted to join the Apple design team, reports Fairfax.

Newson, who has been described as “one of the most influential designers of this generation”, is known for furniture designs and has worked for some of the most visible brands in Australia and overseas, including Nike, Qantas and Ford.

The London-based designer has previously designed clothing for G-Star Raw, appliances for Smeg, the interior of restaurants and watches for Ikepod.

He is the latest big name to join the tech giant, following Apple’s hiring of former Burberry chief executive Angela Ahrendts and Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, who came on board after Apple snapped up their music streaming service Beats.

Shares down on open

The Australian sharemarket is off to a slow start this week, with gains on Wall Street on Friday failing to impress local investors waiting for the next lot of trade figures out of China.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 14.8 points to 5583.9 points at 11.53am AEST. Last week, the Dow Jones closed 67.78 points higher, up 0.4% to 17137.4 points.