2 April 2015
On 31 March 2015, the Harper Panel released the final report from its wide-ranging review of Australia’s competition policy and laws.
Amongst the detailed consideration of current policy settings and legislative history, the Final Report recommends:
- breaking up the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission into two regulators, one of which would be dedicated to pricing of regulated infrastructure, such as telecommunications, rail, ports, natural gas pipelines, electricity networks and telecommunications networks;
- changing the governance of the Commission by creating more part-time Commissioners including (possibly) the Chairperson;
- introducing a workable formal merger clearance process;
- introducing a new civil prohibition on concerted practices and simplifying cartel laws; and
- introducing block exemptions.
Read our detailed alert here.
Over the next fortnight we will be posting a number of alerts dealing with specific issues, looking first at the proposed IP-related reforms.
