A new mandatory merger control regime comes into effect on 1 January 2026, strengthening Australia’s merger laws.
From 1 July 2025, businesses can notify on a voluntary basis to enable businesses to manage the transitional period.
Under the regime, businesses contemplating an acquisition that meets certain thresholds must notify the ACCC.
After an acquisition has been notified, the ACCC will assess whether it would be likely to substantially lessen competition.
Businesses can go ahead with a notified acquisition only after it is approved, provided it is completed within 12 months of the ACCC’s decision.
What the ACCC does
We assess notified acquisitions and waiver applications.
We make an administrative decision according to the test and process in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
We publish and maintain a public register with details of each notified acquisition and waiver applications and reasons for our decision.
We will take an active monitoring and surveillance role to ensure compliance with the mandatory requirements.
What the ACCC can't do
We can’t consider notifications for acquisitions that are already completed.
Merger control in Australia is changing
A new mandatory merger control regime for notifying and assessing acquisitions starts on 1 January 2026. This process replaces the current informal review and merger authorisation processes.
The merger control regime aims to identify and prevent anti-competitive acquisitions, while allowing those that do not raise competition concerns to proceed as quickly as possible.
Under the mandatory merger control regime, businesses contemplating an acquisition that meets certain thresholds must notify the ACCC and wait for approval before their proposed acquisition can proceed.
Engaging with us now about a proposed acquisition
On 1 July 2025, some changes came into effect as part of the transition to the new regime:
applications for merger authorisation are no longer be possible
the new merger control regime is available to use voluntarily.
Until 31 December 2025, to engage with us about an acquisition you can:
notify using the new merger control regime on a voluntary basis
continue to use the current informal review process. Engage as early as possible to give enough time to complete the review.
Our transition guidance provides further information and next steps during the key transition periods.
Acquisitions portal
Use the secure acquisitions portal to:
request early engagement with us about a notification or waiver. This may be by submitting a draft notification to begin pre-notification engagement or by providing some preliminary information about your acquisition to start early discussions
notify an acquisition
pay waiver application fees by credit card (1 January 2026)
obtain EFT payment details and upload evidence of payment for waivers, notifications and public benefit applications.
You need to create an account before you can use the acquisitions portal. When you create an account, you will be asked to accept the terms and conditions of use. Once you have an account, this is your login to access the portal.
A matter ID is created
When you first enter details about an acquisition in the portal, a unique matter ID is created for that acquisition. This will be the reference for that matter.
Save function is available
The portal has a save function. Once a matter ID is created, you can save your progress and return to the matter later.
The portal supports multi-user access to a matter
Sometimes more than one person in your team needs access to a matter in the portal. Multi-user access to a matter on the portal is possible.
The user who creates the matter can give other portal account holders permission to access the matter and edit that matter’s forms as an administrator or contributor.
Responses to questions are submitted in 2 ways
You must answer all the questions and provide the information required by the relevant form.
Before you access the portal, review the complete set of questions and our associated guidance:
The online portal requires users to answer some questions:
directly into fields in the portal form
as uploaded documents at the end of the portal form.
It is important that you pay close attention to ensure you include all the information required by the relevant form as well as any information identified by the ACCC during pre-notification engagement.
When the portal asks for information that has already been provided in the portal from your earlier engagement with us, you will be asked to confirm that the information is still correct.
Accepted file formats and names
Accepted file formats are all Microsoft Office file types, OpenOffice file types, PDF, ZIP, WLX, RAR, 7Zip, Gzip, and BZ2.
File names cannot contain the special characters + : < > “ / \ | ? “
Upload proof of payment
Your notification or application requires payment of the applicable fee to be made before the ACCC’s assessment timelines commence. It is therefore critical that you upload evidence of payment through the portal as soon as possible after paying any fees by electronic funds transfer.
Contact
For technical assistance please email mergers@accc.gov.au and we will be in contact.
Businesses should consider engaging with us before notifying their acquisition. This is a valuable opportunity to:
raise issues with us including whether a short form or long form is appropriate for their acquisition
discuss the possible areas of focus, information and data that we may require
discuss timing.
Pre-notification engagement also helps us prepare to assess your notification as efficiently and quickly as possible and reduce the likelihood of subsequent information requests.
Request pre-notification engagement with the ACCC
To begin pre-notification engagement you need to submit a draft notification through the acquisitions portal.
We recommend you commence pre-notification engagement at least 2 weeks before you plan to formally notify. Contact us earlier if your acquisition is likely to raise competition issues or is complex.
If you are not ready to submit a draft notification you can still start early discussions with us by providing some preliminary information about your acquisition through the acquisitions portal.
You can voluntarily notify an acquisition from 1 July 2025.
Notification will become mandatory from 1 January 2026 for acquisitions that meet certain thresholds.
When you notify the ACCC on a voluntary or mandatory basis, you will need to lodge a form and pay the applicable fee.
Consider if your acquisition meets the notification thresholds. The thresholds, forms and fees are set out in legal rules made by a Treasury Minister.
Notify your acquisition
To notify an acquisition you need to lodge the form and pay the applicable fee through the acquisitions portal.
You can use either the short or long notification form.
In most cases, the short form will be appropriate. Use the short form for straightforward acquisitions that are unlikely to raise competition concerns.
The notification waiver process is not available until 1 January 2026.
Businesses may apply to the ACCC for a waiver which removes the need to notify an acquisition, even if it meets the thresholds.
More information will be provided on the notification waiver process once the legislative instrument has been finalised by Treasury and closer to its starting date.
Remedies
Remedies address competition concerns that could otherwise result from an acquisition.
Businesses may offer remedies to the ACCC in the form of commitments or court-enforceable undertakings. If you propose a remedy:
discuss it with us early – this could be during pre-notification engagement
put your best offer forward as early as possible
make sure it is clearly defined, includes supporting information and addresses the competition concerns.
The ACCC can approve an acquisition with conditions. The ACCC may determine the nature, form and scope of conditions. These conditions may reflect:
remedies that the parties have offered to the ACCC, or
a remedy that the ACCC considers appropriate following consultation with the parties to the acquisition and, where appropriate, relevant third parties.
Offer a remedy
You can offer a commitment or undertaking:
by including the offer in your notification, or
after notifying by emailing your offer to the ACCC team allocated to your acquisition. Please also provide a copy to mergersru@accc.gov.au.
If you send your offer by email please title your email: 'Offer of commitment or undertaking under new regime – [insert acquisition name]'.
The ACCC will acknowledge receipt of offers made over email.
Standard divestiture terms
If you intend to offer a divestiture remedy, you can use the standard divestiture terms.
These standard terms address some of the risks that commonly arise in divestiture undertakings.
They are not a comprehensive statement of all the matters that need to be addressed. Many of the terms, for example, around auditing and monitoring, are also applicable to other types of remedies.
The ACCC is the first instance decision maker on each notified acquisition.
The process for assessing a notified acquisition is the same regardless of whether notification is made on a mandatory basis from 1 January 2026 or a voluntary basis from 1 July 2025.
Timelines for assessment
After an acquisition has been notified, the ACCC assesses whether the acquisition would be likely to substantially lessen competition.
The ACCC must make its assessment within set timelines.
Phase 1 is up to 30 business days, subject to any extensions. The earliest the ACCC may approve an acquisition is after 15 business days. This is to ensure transparency via the acquisitions register of acquisitions under consideration.
If further assessment is required, it will move to Phase 2, which is up to 90 business days. This phase may also be extended under some circumstances.
If the ACCC does not approve an acquisition or approves it with conditions after a competition assessment, businesses have the option of applying for approval based on an assessment of the likely public benefits and detriments. The ACCC has up to 50 business days to consider public benefit applications, subject to any extensions.
Assessment framework and guidelines
Our guidelines set out our assessment framework and the process we follow for reviewing mergers.
The quick guide for business provides a snapshot of key information to know about the new merger control regime and the key steps in the process.
The merger assessment guidelines outline the analytical framework we will apply when assessing notified acquisitions under the new mandatory merger control regime.
The interim merger process guidelines outline our processes when assessing acquisitions and expectations for how relevant stakeholders can engage.
Fees for 2025-26
Action
Applicable fee
Notify an acquisition
$56,800
For notifications that require further in-depth assessment, a Phase 2 fee is payable 7 business days after the ACCC advises notification is subject to Phase 2:
$475,000 (for transactions valued at $50 million or less)
$855,000 (for transactions valued at more than $50 million, but not more than $1 billion)
$1,595,000 (for transactions valued at more than $1 billion)
Apply for public benefit assessment
$401,000
Apply for notification waiver (not available until January 2026)
$8,300
Small business fee exemption
If you are a small business with aggregated turnover of less than AUD $10 million, you may be eligible for a fee exemption.
The legal rules set out a small business fee exemption if there is:
only one notifying party of the acquisition—the notifying party is a small business entity (within the meaning of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997) for the income year that includes the contract date, or
more than one notifying party—all the notifying parties are small business entities for the income year that includes the contract date.
Information about what is a small business entity is available on the Australian Taxation Office website.
Cost recovery implementation statement
The ACCC will charge fees to people who notify an acquisition under the merger control regime or who apply for a waiver from notification. This is consistent with the Australian Government Charging Framework, and the government’s decision that all reviews under the merger control regime will be accompanied by a full cost recovery fee.
