My High Court Intervention

apshamilton in #cryptoclassaction • 2 years ago

Since I commenced the Crypto Class Action against Facebook (Meta) and Google, a number of Australian appeal Court decisions in other cases have gone my way, establishing very helpful precedents which make my case stronger.

These include:

the Epic vs Apple Full Court Appeal, which established that competition law cases of broad impact on Australian consumers have a special public interest status, that protects against attempts to block them being heard on the merits by the Federal Court of Australia;
the BHP Group Limited v Impiombato High Court Appeal which confirmed that foreign residents can be group members in Australian class actions; and
the Australian Information Commissioner (AICC) vs Facebook Full Court Appeal, which established that Facebook Inc. (the US parent company) was doing business in Australia and thus subject to Australian law, even when the contracting party with Australian resident users was Facebook Ireland.

Facebook's High Court Appeal on doing business in Australia

Facebook Inc. sought to appeal this later decision to the High Court of Australia and were granted special leave to appeal in mid-September 2022.

The arguments at first instance (two judgments, one ex parte and one contested) and on appeal revolved around complex and somewhat obscure IT technical questions regarding Facebook Inc. storing cookies on Australian users phones, providing an API to Australian developers and use of caching servers in Australia.

Now while I know that there are many devs and tech nerds on Hive who are fascinated by such technical minutiae, most people (including lawyers) find them difficult and tedious.

A better argument?

In preparing my arguments in the Crypto Class Action on the same issue - whether Facebook Inc. was doing business in Australia - I realised that there is a much simpler and more powerful argument.

Facebook's terms and conditions says that Facebook Inc. is the contracting party for US and Canadian residents and Facebook Ireland is for everybody else.

But what about North American visitors to Australia? They are US or Canadian residents so have a contract with Facebook Inc, yet they are in Australia Facebooking away with pics of the Sydney Opera House, kangaroos and koalas and being served ads suitable to their travels.

This is Facebook Inc. directly doing business, conducting large number of transactions generating ad revenue in Australia.

For some reason, the AICC didn't make this argument in any of the hearings on this topic.

I brought it to their lawyer's attention in August 2020, but this was after the AICC had filed their evidence in the second (contested) first instance hearing on the issue.

Lack of Evidence?

Now that this important question has reached the High Court, I though it was time to re-look at the issue.

While appeal Courts cannot normally consider new evidence and the AICC appears not to have filed any evidence on North American visitors to Australia and their Facebook usage, where certain facts are a matter of common knowledge that is not reasonably open to question, the Courts can take judicial notice of such facts, without evidence needing to be filed. This is codified in s 144 of the Evidence Act 1995 (Cth).

The fact that US and Canadians visit Australia in large numbers (except during Australia's COVID self-isolation) is a fact that a Court can take judicial notice of.

So is the fact that Facebook usage is so widespread and pervasive that a reasonable percentage of such visitors use the Facebook platform while they are in Australia.

These facts can also be easily verified by reference to documents the authority of which cannot reasonably be questioned (like official statistics on visitor entries to Australia and Facebook Annual Reports). This is another ground for judicial notice under s 144 of the Evidence Act 1995 (Cth).

Time for an intervention?

After reviewing the above legal situation, I decided that there was a good legal basis for bringing this issue to the attention of the High Court.

Because the Judgment which found I had a prima facie case and gave me leave to serve applied the judgment under challenge in the High Court, I have an interest in the High Court proceedings and can claim the status of an intervener.

In less than 24 hours I researched the legal issues on judicial notice and intervening in a High Court case and filed these submissions:

https://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/cases/08-Sydney/s137-2022/Facebook-AIC_PropInt.pdf

Let me know what you think.

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#google #facebook #cryptocurrency #leofinance #meta #proofofbrain #legal #highcourt

2 years ago in #cryptoclassaction by apshamilton

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bcarolan639 2 years ago

i dont know what it is but if it helps crypto stay out of government oversight and regulation im all for it lol. I dont like the government having the abilility to just freezy my money. If i have it in my wallet and say i charge money to my self from my own business max my cards out take like 200K from that put it in btc, eth etc and various lp postions as well as stable coins for use on defi protocals for interest and staking and stakking as a service, mining certain coins, run guilds palying games where i get x % and do a few other things and once its automated it i think will exceed what i think it will do and im just hoping it replaces 100K so which is like 200K salary bc w2s get boned. If i can do that im going to be plowing money like half into traditional private and individual equidies and private real estate all types as well as private busiensses like car washes , gas stations, Farms, start ups, then 25% into directly owned real estate and make sure i spend over 750 hours and keep a log so i can completly offset my tax and that 25% leverages to 75% bc you can usually borrow 3X on real estate and the depreciation can be divided out into lessor lives you can deduct year 1 ususally between 40-60% so say 50% and the building was a 2 illion dollar building i could have a 1 million dollar deduction and likely nol to cover unexpectedd income or fluctioations and deprecation on 1 million the building over 39 years but some of that can be deducted as well. The passive investments will be timed to offset each other so zero taxes, oil, gas, minerals, etc working interests will be used also to offset earned income so I can qualify for all the free shit from the govt if you show legally of course a agi of 17K. You can its complicated to do but i do it every year never pay tax legally and keep every cent no fica i dont get a w2. In about a year or 2 I will likely be full boar in this project with a manager running the tasks and me just making sure it goes well and expanding it so i can make more and then at 35-40 sell the business for a few million or more depending and thats it become a full time investor put 2 million in very safe investments that guarantee me like 100-200K a year then the rest i can invest in what ever i want bc ill plan to live on the 200K and any extra will be money that goes in a trust for members of are family so hopefully there is enough to create generational wealth actually when i get my inheritace there deff will be so ill set the rules up so only 50% of the income can be used so it always grows and it will give my kids and family and my sister the opportunity to just not work if they dont want to and pursue something interesting but maybe it doesnt pay which is true freedom and thats what im shooting for and really early bc i worked my ass off for 20 years and then saw how the game is played and i would never make it as a employee its almost impossible for most bc they have no clue but you sacarafice as much as possible for 5 years if your late and say make 80K plow as much in your 401K, IRA and HSA brokerage as you can, start a side business so you can take a initial tax loss against your wages and get all your taxes pack for a few years plow that in investments in a traditional broker, utilized oz funds for some investments with gains and overall if you dont have like at least 500K extend the saving a few more years and wait until you do bc you want to be able to get 50K with 10% returns to 20% returns 100K so you can live on 20-25K and make another bit doing something hyou love doesnt need to be much if its 10K great plow that into a solo 401K and have a 5% amount to use for anything. Once you start living off the distributions and side gigs still save like crazy to build up the passive to 100K maybe not as aggressivly but fast so withing 5-7 years you at or past it and then you can spend a bit more and stil save like 50-100K a year in investments that in about 5 more years will make you so much money if they go well that you will probably double or triple that passive income and then im good but i like ivesting so ill still prob do it i only do it like a few hours a week the only diff is id have places in the USVI, Philipines - Rent, Puerto Rico Highrise, vegas, ny etc and some abroad in berut , amsterdam, london, ireland and when im not there there would be a business manager to rent them out or throw events what ever to make money on them.

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invest4free 2 years ago

Keep up the good work!

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bozz 2 years ago

Interesting stuff. I had honestly totally forgotten about this. I am glad that you are still plugging away. I have no doubt you are putting countless hours into this.

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apshamilton 2 years ago

Crypto moves in dog years, the law in elephant years.

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brianoflondon 2 years ago

I'll add a little colour: the Australian High Court is the country's highest court so American's should read this as very rapid submission Australia's equivalent of the US Supreme Court.

Once again I had the best seats in the house to watch Andrew blast through the research for this filing and then submit it in 24 hours. This isn't even our case, but it's such a bit oversight and it would be so beneficial to us if Facebook lose this appeal, it was well worth it for Andrew to take the time to research, write and file this.

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