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About notifying an acquisition
Businesses should notify acquisitions that meet the notification thresholds through the acquisitions portal.
Businesses need to provide the required information and pay the relevant fee through the portal.
Notifications can be made using either a short form
Before you notify
- Read the guidance on the process and our assessment.
- Consider whether the short form or long form is appropriate.
- Contact us to start pre-notification engagement.
- Read the guidance on using the acquisitions portal.
- Be ready to pay and confirm payment of any applicable fees through the portal.
Notify your acquisition
To notify an acquisition you need to submit the relevant form and confirm payment of 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 long form is more appropriate for acquisitions that may raise greater competition risks and/or complexity. Before lodging, read our Guidance on notifying acquisitions - When to use the long notification form.
Provide responses in 2 parts
The portal requires users to answer the required questions in 2 parts. This is done by entering:
- some information directly into fields in the portal, and
- other information as uploaded documents at the end of the portal.
Before accessing the portal, review the complete set of questions that need to be answered, with our associated guidance:
- Notification of proposed acquisition short form and guidance ( PDF 305.21 KB )
- Notification of proposed acquisition long form and guidance ( PDF 365.46 KB )
- Notification forms - templates for past relevant acquisitions, market shares, and competitor and customer contacts ( XLSX 68.63 KB )
- Notification forms and public benefit application form - Declaration template ( DOCX 55.32 KB ) .
Fees to notify an acquisition
To notify an acquisition, the fee is:
- $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).
To submit a notification waiver application, the fee is:
- $8,300
The lodgement fees are set out in legal rules made by a Treasury Minister.
Individual payment details are provided in the portal after you reach a certain point in the portal process. The fee should be paid as close as possible to the date the notification or notification waiver application is submitted through the portal.
After you obtain the payment details and pay the notification fee, upload proof of payment through the portal.
Pay by electronic funds transfer
The acquisition portal generates a unique payment reference number for each notification and each application.
When paying by electronic funds transfer, do not proceed with payment until you have the payment reference number from the portal.
The payment reference number must be included in the description when payment is made, either by the relevant party or their advisor. This enables us to:
- link the payment to the notification
- efficiently confirm payment and the effective notification date.
Account name: ACCC Administered receipts account
Bank: Westpac Banking Corporation
BSB: 032 730
Account number: 146550
Payment narrative: <Payment reference number from the acquisitions portal>
When paying by electronic funds transfer, we encourage parties to confirm that the bank details correspond with those provided in the secure portal.
It is critical that you upload proof of payment through the portal as soon as possible after paying fees by electronic funds transfer.
Payment by credit card
Credit card payment is not available for notification fees.
Fees for notification waiver applications can be paid directly through the acquisitions portal by credit card.
Small business fee exemption
If you are a small business with aggregated turnover of less than $10 million, you may be eligible for a fee exemption.
A small business fee exemption is available if there is:
- only one notifying party of the acquisition and the notifying party is a small business entity for the income year that includes the contract date, or
- more than one notifying party and all the notifying parties are small business entities for the income year that includes the contract date.
The meaning of small business entity is from the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. More information about how small business entity is defined is available from the Australian Taxation Office.
Cost recovery implementation statement
The Australian government decided that the ACCC’s review of acquisitions in the merger control regime will be accompanied by a full cost recovery fee.
The fees are set by a Treasury Minister in legal rules.
For information on the ACCC’s implementation of this cost recovery charging, see Cost Recovery Implementation Statement 2025-26 - merger control regime ( PDF 444.26 KB ).