The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will oppose the administrative decisions review application by Virgin Blue to force the ACCC to review its decision in the Qantas/Impulse merger, ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
"The ACCC understands that one major ground of appeal by Virgin Blue is that reasons were not given for the decision. In fact, the ACCC, although not legally required to, published the reasons for its decision in a detailed media release and published a summary and edited version of the Qantas undertakings on the ACCC website, accc.gov.au.
"Moreover, the ACCC held a lengthy conference that was attended by all major electronic and print media, and others, and answered all questions about the reasons for its decision. It followed this with extensive media interviews. It therefore rejects the suggestion that it did not give reasons for its decision in full.
"The ACCC held a number of meetings with Virgin Blue. On the day that Impulse and Qantas announced their proposal the ACCC acted immediately to contact Virgin Blue to seek its views and to see if it was interested in acquiring Impulse, which it was not.
"Further meetings were held. A major meeting was held on 15 May with Virgin Blue, attended by myself, the Commissioner responsible for Mergers, Mr Ross Jones, and senior mergers staff three days before the ACCC announcement. During that meeting and others the full issues were canvassed and Virgin Blue was given every opportunity to air its views.
"Similarly, frequent meetings were held with Impulse right up to the time of the decision. The ACCC was not aware of the communications between Virgin Blue and Impulse.
"It should be noted that the undertakings that the ACCC obtained as a result of its decision were of substantial benefit to Virgin Blue. The slots obtained would not have otherwise been available. Virgin Blue has applied for two-thirds of these slots to allow it to fly between Sydney and Melbourne. If the ACCC had opposed the Qantas/Impulse deal, as publicly backed by Virgin Blue, it would be very unlikely that Virgin Blue would have gained access to any of these slots. This was explained by the ACCC publicly at the time of its announcement of its decision".