Following passage of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Act 2010, section 152AT of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (now the Competition and Consumer Act 2010) was repealed and companies can no longer apply for individual exemption orders. Under the transitional provisions, individual exemption orders continue operating until the ACCC makes an access determination for that service. Access determinations may include provisions which exempt access providers from the standard access obligations in relation to a declared service either conditionally or unconditionally. These provisions may have a similar effect to the previous exemption orders (access determinations page).
A brief explanation about the repealed exemption provision, a link to the implementation of exemptions and previous decisions are provided below.
Under s. 152AT of the Trade Practices Act 1974, a carrier or carriage service provider could apply to the ACCC for a written order exempting it from the standard access obligations that apply to a declared service. If the ACCC believed that an order made about an application for an individual exemption was likely to have a material effect on the interests of a person, the ACCC was required to publish the application and invite submissions on whether the application should be accepted.
On 18 November 2009, the ACCC released a final decision to vary the class exemptions for the WLR, LCS and PSTN OA services. The variations ensure the class exemptions were consistent with the individual exemption orders handed down by the Australian Competition Tribunal. The final decision and copies of the signed variation instruments can be found below
The Australian Competition Tribunal varied the exemption orders made by the ACCC in August and October 2008 in relation to Telstra's supply of the local carriage service (LCS), wholesale line rental service (WLR) and PSTN originating access service.
On 18 December 2007, Telstra provided the ACCC with an application for exemption from the standard access obligations in respect of supply of the unconditioned local loop service (ULLS), line sharing service (LSS), local carriage service (LCS), wholesale line rental service (WLR), and PSTN origin...
On 8 October 2007, Telstra provided the ACCC with applications for exemption from the standard access obligations for the PSTN Originating Access service in 17 CBD exchange service areas and 387 metropolitan exchange service areas.
On 12 October 2007, Telstra provided the ACCC with two applications for exemption from the standard access obligations in respect of the local carriage service (LCS) and wholesale line rental (WLR) service in 16 exchange service areas across metropolitan Australia. These two exemption applications follow, but are separate processes to, the previously submitted July 2007 LCS and WLR exemption applications.
On 9 July 2007, Telstra provided the ACCC with an application for exemption from the standard access obligations in respect of the local carriage service and wholesale line rental service in 371 exchange service areas across metropolitan Australia.
