Global Competition Law is primarly a practitioner's guide presenting the most salient aspects of the major competition laws country by country, giving an overview of their structure and most charasteristic elements.
Global Competition Law also provides insight into possible future developments in the field.

Global Competition Law

Although the CCA generally is limited to conduct that may reduce competition in Australia, it does have some limited extraterritorial application where the party engaged in the cartel is an Australian citizen, an Australian resident or bodies corporate incorporated or carrying on business within Australia (Section 5). Furthermore, since the Competition and Consumer Amendment Act of 2017, the defin …

Scope 

Competition law in Australia is governed principally by Part IV of the Competition and Consumer Act (formerly the Trade Practices Act of 1974), which is administered by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The Trade Practices Act was renamed the Competition and Consumer Act (CCA), when the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) was implemented on 1 January 2011. Before implementing of the national law concerning consumer protection and fair trading, Part IVA of the Trade Practices Act addressed unconscionable conduct. Now, the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) which constitutes Schedule 2 to the CCA includes a provision that makes unfair contract terms in consumer contracts void (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 sets out provisions banning specific unfair practices in trade or commerce and Chapter 4 deals with criminal offenses relating to these unconscionable conducts. The CCA covers inter alia unfair market practices, industry codes, mergers and acquisitions of companies, product safety, product labelling, price monitoring, and the regulation of industries such as telecommunications, gas, electricity and airports.

Since 1995, each of the Australia States has adopted competition law statutes mirroring the Competition and Consumer Act (CCA). The adoption of uniform national and local competition statutes was considered essential as, according to the structure of government established in the Australian Constitution, the federal state does not have the power to regulate certain non-commercial entities, such as professions, the commercial activities of State governments and market authorities operating within a State.

In 2014, the Federal Government appointed a review panel in order to “examine the broader competition framework to ensure that it continues to play a role as a significant driver of productivity improvements and to ensure that the current laws are operating as intended and are effective for all businesses, big and small”. The so-called “Harper Review” was released on 31 March 2015 and led to the drafting of two bills, the Misuse of Market Power Bill, which was finally adopted on 23 August 2017, and the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Competition Policy Review) Bill, which was adopted on 18 October 2017. Both acts, which implement most of the panel's recommendations and constitute a major reform of competition law in Australia entered into force on 6 November 2017.  

In November 2022, the Treasury Laws Amendment (More Competition, Better Prices) Act amended  the Competition and Consumer Act to inter alia increase the maximum penalty applicable to certain breaches of competition and consumer law.

Context

Although the CCA generally is limited to conduct that may reduce competition in Australia, it does have some limited extraterritorial application where the party engaged in the cartel is an Australian citizen, an Australian resident or bodies corporate incorporated or carrying on business within Australia (Section 5). Furthermore, since the Competition and Consumer Amendment Act of 2017, the definition of “competition” has been changed to include not only competition from goods or services that are actually imported into or rendered in Australia but also from goods that are capable of being imported into or rendered in Australia. At the same time, the Act confines cartel conduct to behavior affecting competition “within Australia or between Australia and places outside Australia”.

The function of the Competition and Consumer Act (CCA) is set out in Part I - Preliminary (2) of the Act as a desire to “enhance the welfare of Australians through the promotion of competition and fair trading and provision for consumer protection”. The provisions of the CCA apply principally to restrictive agreements, misuse of market power (monopolization) and unfair practices.

Certain categories of agreements are excluded from the otherwise broad scope of the CCA, including certain employment agreements, or agreements relating exclusively to exports. The CCA applies not only to private businesses, but also to the Crown to the extent that it carries on commercial activities. One limitation on this is that the Crown is not liable for monetary damages for violations of the CCA.

Global Competition Law

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Les notions juridiques connexes

790. Scope

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Les notions juridiques connexes

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