Australia, Competition law, Fines

, , , (K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

In July, we outlined the new Government’s Competition and Consumer Law policy initiatives (click here). The Government has now moved forward with one of these initiatives, publishing for consultation a draft bill and related explanatory materials (click here), seeking very substantial increases to the maximum penalties for breaches of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010…

Australia, Cartels, Criminal enforcement, Criminal sanctions, Disclosure, Leniency

, (K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

Legal professional privilege (LPP) has long been recognised as a powerful, though controversial protection. As the Australian High Court once declared, it is “a practical guarantee of fundamental constitutional or human rights”.[1] Yet, despite its well-established jurisprudential position, its utilisation to protect internal cartel investigation records of criminal cartel immunity applicants (IA) from being disclosed…

Australia, Competition Law 2021

, , , (K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

2021 proved to be a significant year for competition and consumer law in Australia. This article outlines a number of the key developments as follows: The trend for record penalties continues (as exemplified by the record $153 million penalty ordered against vocational skills training company AIPE). The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) remains an…

Australia, Unfair competition

, , , , (K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

The Australian Government has released the Exposure Draft legislation and Explanatory Materials for an anticipated suite of reforms to unfair contract terms (UCT) laws found in the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (ASIC Act). Treasury is now considering feedback on the exposure draft with a view to the…

Australia, Competition policy, Enforcement

, , (K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chair, Rod Sims, has announced the ACCC’s 2021 compliance and enforcement policy and priorities. The focus of the ACCC’s 2021 priorities is reflective of its: continuation of its unfinished “to do” list in a COVID-19 interrupted 2020 enduring/ongoing priorities, such as the prosecution of cartel conduct (with two to…

Australia, COVID-19

, (K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

The theme of antitrust in crisis is very timely for the current global climate, but more so than ever for Australia where we had already dealt with unprecedented drought, bushfires and now the global COVID-19 pandemic. Not for a century have Governments had to manage a health and economic crisis of such intensity, scale or…

Australia, Competitor collaboration, COVID-19

, , , (K&L Gates)/ /Leave a comment

In brief: Industry collaborations that involve restrictions on supply of goods or services are likely to be per se illegal under Australian competition law. However, businesses can seek to self-assess legal risks under the joint venture exception to cartel conduct or seek to have proposed cartel conduct authorised (approved) by the Australian Competition and Consumer…