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

Before 2025, merger control was informal. A that time, the Informal Merger Review Process Guidelines (September 2013) dealt with the ACCC's informal approval process. A separate public register file was created for each application for authorization and public access was available as regards all non-confidential contents. The ACCC might interview interested parties, and any party may ask to be inc …

Proceedings before the ACCC

Before 2025, there was no mandatory pre-merger notification procedure in Australia. However, the ACCC may investigate the merger after completion and, if necessary, take legal action. Therefore, in the case of mergers which may potentially lessen competition, the parties are advised to seek authorization under Part VII. Applications for merger clearance must be made by the acquiring party, not the target, using Form O relating to formal clearance and paying the prescribed fee, set at A$ 25,000 (US$ 19,043). 

Applications for authorization before the ACCC must be made by completing and lodging Form S Application for merger authorization and payment of the prescribed fee.

From 1 January 2026, a new mandatory regime for notifying and assessing acquisitions will take effect. The new rules apply to acquisitions of shares, assets or to any other type of transaction as described in Part IVA of the CCA. Only notifiable acquisitions that meet the specified thresholds must be notified to the Authority. The new law includes new provisions (sections 188 and 189 CCA) to help businesses to transition to the new regime, including the ability to notify under the new regime on a voluntary basis from 1 July 2025. It must be noted that requests for an informal review submitted after October 2025 may not be considered in time. In other words, two options are available for engaging with the ACCC between 1 July and 31 December. Parties can either continue to use the current informal process or use the new regime on a voluntary basis.

Merger notification

Before 2025, merger control was informal. A that time, the Informal Merger Review Process Guidelines (September 2013) dealt with the ACCC's informal approval process. A separate public register file was created for each application for authorization and public access was available as regards all non-confidential contents. The ACCC might interview interested parties, and any party may ask to be included in the assessment process. In practice, the authorization procedure was rarely used since it was time consuming, required that information about the merger be made publicly available and any decision was subject to review by the Federal Courts.

The transition to Australia’s new mandatory merger control regime has introduced a period of dual-track clearance mechanisms during which parties may still engage with the informal clearance process until 31 December 2025 while also gaining access to a newly instituted voluntary formal notification procedure. In this interim phase, parties are permitted, but not required, to lodge formal notifications with the ACCC under the new statutory framework. However, the ACCC has cautioned that any informal reviews not completed by 31 December 2025 will not be exempt across regimes but rather, will be automatically terminated, and re-notification under the formal system will be mandatory. 

To mitigate uncertainty and ensure transactional predictability, the ACCC has introduced a “soft deadline” of 30 September 2025 for informal submissions, signalling that reviews commenced after this date may not realistically be finalized before the cutoff. This transitional arrangement reflects the ACCC’s effort to balance procedural fairness with administrative efficiency, while also encouraging early uptake of the new, legislatively codified notification process. 

The ACCC has announced it will cease accepting applications for informal clearance from 1 October 2025. Transactions cleared under the informal regime prior to that date may still benefit from transitional provisions, allowing completion within 12 months of the ACCC’s letter without triggering notification obligations under the new regime.

Contrary to informal review, authorization confers legal protection to the person to whom clearance is granted from the application of Section 50 of the CCA: neither the ACCC nor any other party may subsequently initiate legal action on the basis of an alleged contravention of Section 50 insofar as the merger takes place in accordance with the clearance.

Under Australia’s restructured merger control regime, fully operative from 1 January 2026 following a voluntary transition window commencing 1 July 2025, the process of merger authorization is fundamentally reconstituted. Mergers that meet mandatory notification thresholds must be notified to the ACCC and may not be completed unless and until clearance is granted. The authorization process itself takes place in possibly two steps : Phase 1 and Phase 2 assessments.

In Phase 1, the ACCC has up to 30 business days, with potential early clearance after 15 days, to issue a determination. In a case where concerns arise, the process continues to Phase 2, entailing an extended 90 business day review period. Outcomes include unconditional clearance, conditional clearance or outright denial of approval. Importantly, clearance may only be granted where the ACCC is satisfied that the acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition, or that public benefits demonstrably outweigh any competitive harm.

Global Competition Law

818. Proceedings before the ACCC

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Les notions juridiques connexes

818. Proceedings before the ACCC

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise