You attend a regularly scheduled trade association meeting. Afterwards, during refreshments, you find yourself chatting with a local competitor. The conversation eventually moves to the tightening of margins and profits in recent years. You agree with your competitor that business conditions are much tighter than they have been for quite some time and that things were better in the good old days.
No problems here—you are simply exchanging views.
Your competitor goes on to say that part of the problem is that the industry participants are ‘cutting each other’s throats’ and that the focus should be on lifting prices and margins. They state that the industry association should concentrate on improving the bottom line for members by putting out a guide on prices.
Warning! Where there is an understanding between competitors to use a recommended price list as an industry-wide price floor, then a price fixing arrangement has been made.
You are non-committal and leave shortly afterwards. Several weeks later, you receive from your competitor an email containing a draft minimum price schedule and saying that most of the suppliers in the state like the idea and intend to use it.
Act now! The agreement is clearly to fix, control and/or maintain prices, and would be illegal. You may be implicated if you do nothing, because it could be inferred that you tacitly agreed. You should seek legal advice and report the matter to the ACCC.
