The proposed reforms to section 46 of the Trade Practices Act would provide the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission with the tools it needed to vigorously protect competition while ensuring that the basic rights of those affected were not trampled in the process, ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said.*
"With these [proposed] changes in place the ACCC considers that the balance has been adequately struck between ensuring that businesses are exposed to the rigours of competition – with all the associated economic benefits – while being protected from the possible anti-competitive consequences associated with firms gaining power from that competitive process.
"This will not put an end to ongoing calls for greater action by the ACCC to protect firms that are struggling to compete with more efficient rivals – whether those rivals' greater efficiency comes from economies of scale or the ability to be nimble and innovate quicker.
"But what it does mean is when firms that have market power are using that power for an anti-competitive purpose the ACCC will be well placed to act."
Mr Samuel welcomed the decision to allow the ACCC to undertake interlocutory proceedings to stop alleged misconduct occurring whilst still retaining the use of it's information gathering powers up until the agency commences substantive proceedings in a matter.
"Extending the period where s 155 powers can be used in this way would allow potentially harmful conduct to be stopped quickly without jeopardising any ultimate court outcome against the trader," he said.
Mr Samuel commented that with a tightening economic situation, businesses were likely to feel increased pressure and would increasingly look to the TPA to ensure that they were adequately protected from unfair trading practices.
"Having long expressed their frustration at the inability of the predatory pricing provisions of the Trade Practices Act, and the lack of successful cases, small businesses are having some of those concerns now addressed.
"By identifying the real impediments that have prevented the law from functioning properly, the government is promising to clear aside the last remaining major blockages that have prevented more successful cases from flowing.
"The ACCC has not changed its stance – it stands ready to take appropriate cases as soon as our legal advice tells us we have reasonable grounds to do so.
"The result of more cases now being able to proceed will be a win for all those who look to the Trade Practices Act 1974 to protect the competitive process."