Highlighting Changes Of Interest In Competition And Consumer Law

In November 2017, the long-awaited reforms in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) ("CCA") went into effect to significantly alter several aspects of Australia's competition laws. One such change is to Australia's merger or acquisition clearance procedures, which have given the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ("ACCC") broader jurisdiction to control the passage of mergers or acquisitions in Australia. The amendments have essentially consolidated the Australian Competition Tribunal's ("Tribunal") merger or acquisition authorisation jurisdiction (which in the past had only been used a handful of times) and the ACCC's merger or acquisition clearance jurisdiction (which had never been used) into a single process (authorisation by the ACCC).