The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission yesterday entered into a cooperation arrangement with the UK Department of Trade and Industry, the UK Office of Fair Trading, and the New Zealand Commerce Commission.
The arrangement establishes a framework for notification, coordination and cooperation on competition and consumer protection enforcement activities, exchange of information and treatment of confidential information.
The arrangement was signed yesterday in Paris where ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, is attending OECD meetings on competition policy issues.
This arrangement adds to the range of cooperative agreements that the ACCC currently has in place with agencies from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Korea, Fiji, Chinese Taipei and Papua New Guinea.
In the current climate of globalisation, cooperation arrangements such as these provide the framework for the ACCC's ongoing efforts in combating, for example, the potentially harmful effects of international mergers, cartels and consumer fraud.
The ACCC is also currently exploring the possibility of entering into cooperation agreements with other counterpart agencies to ensure that cross-border investigations and enforcement activities can be undertaken in a timely and effective manner.