ACCC sees benefit in collective bargaining by newsagents

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission proposes to grant authorisation to the Australian Newsagents' Federation (ANF) to engage in collective negotiations on behalf of its members with certain publishers and distributors of newspapers and magazines.

"Collective bargaining is likely to deliver public benefits by providing newsagents with more effective input into contractual terms and conditions," ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said. "The arrangements may also lead to transaction cost savings."

Authorisation provides immunity from court action for conduct that might otherwise raise concerns under the competition provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974. Broadly, the ACCC may grant an authorisation when it is satisfied that the public benefit from the conduct outweighs any public detriment.

The ACCC has previously authorised collective bargaining arrangements for newsagents on condition that bargaining groups are no larger than state level. In this case, the ACCC proposes to grant the ANF's request for authorisation to form national collective bargaining groups to deal with magazine publishers and distributors.  All interested parties will have an opportunity to put further submissions on this issue to the ACCC before a final decision is made.

Participation in any collective bargaining is voluntary for newsagents, as well as publishers and distributors of magazines and newspapers.  The ACCC has also proposed a number of conditions on the authorisation to set clear limits on the scope of the negotiations.
 
The ACCC proposes to grant conditional authorisation to the arrangements for five years.

The ACCC's draft determination will be available from the ACCC website, via the Public Registers and Authorisations and notifications registers links.

The ACCC invites submissions from interested parties in relation to the draft determination before making its final decision. Parties wishing to make submissions should do so by 5 June 2009.  Please refer to the website for further information about making a submission to the ACCC.