Month: October 2013

A bitter pill to swallow in a weighty affair

October 31, 2013 | 0 Comments

The Federal Court has imposed a 3 year sentence for contempt of court, following breaches of court orders by a marketer of weight loss products.  The case confirms that the ACCC can be expected to...

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Hot on the heels of the election, the Commonwealth Government has released draft legislation that provides for the repeal of the carbon tax legislation.  In addition, the draft legislation proposes to introduce new prohibitions and...

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Playing ball and bearing the $2m burden

October 21, 2013 | 1 Comments

On 18 October 2013, the Federal Court imposed pecuniary penalties of $2 million against Koyo Australia Pty Ltd, a supplier of ball bearings, for engaging in cartel conduct. As outlined in our previous post, Koyo...

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Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chairman Rod Sims recently addressed the University of Wollongong’s SMART International Infrastructure Symposium. The symposium, in its inaugural year, aims to provide a platform for international research and collaboration...

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Knock it off or pay the price

October 16, 2013 | 1 Comments

When an AGL door knocker was confronted with a sign on a consumer’s front door featuring the image of a fist with a line struck through it, accompanied by large, capitalised words stating ‘DO NOT...

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Foreshadowing the enactment of the Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill (Bill), which is expected to be passed later this year or early in 2014, the New Zealand Commerce Commission (NZCC) has just released...

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The New Zealand Commerce Commission (NZCC) has been busy on the criminal enforcement front.  Weeks after it successfully completed its first criminal prosecution under the New Zealand Crimes Act (see our previous post), the NZCC...

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ACCC not immune to review

October 3, 2013 | 1 Comments

The ACCC has released a public discussion paper on its immunity policy for cartel conduct, inviting written submissions from interested parties on several key issues arising from its review. Earlier this year, the ACCC announced...

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The mystery around bank interchange fees

October 2, 2013 | 0 Comments

While the world of bank interchange fees can at best be described as murky, competition regulators across the globe have been searching for clarity by scrutinising these fees and how service providers, primarily Visa and...

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US shut down

October 2, 2013 | 0 Comments

A US Government shutdown began on 1 October 2013 after Congress failed to pass a spending bill to fund government operations for the next fiscal year. Until Congress can agree on funding, non-essential government services...

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