The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued for public comment draft guidelines concerning changes to arbitration processes which result from recent amendments to the Trade Practices Act 1974, ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.
The guidelines give effect to the Trade Practices Amendment (National Access Regime) Act 2006 which commenced on 1 October 2006. Among other things, the Act amends Part IIIA by providing the ACCC with mechanisms to:
- defer arbitration of an access dispute where it is also considering an access undertaking on related issues
- backdate a final determination and apply payment of interest to a backdated determination
- the legislative amendments also require the ACCC to formulate guidelines for these new provisions within six months after commencement of the Act (i.e. by 1 April 2007).
The guidelines are designed to explain how the ACCC might apply the provisions on deferral of arbitrations and backdating of final determinations when making decisions under Part IIIA.
The ACCC invites written submissions on the draft guidelines. Submissions should be provided to the ACCC no later than 2 February 2007