58 results, showing 41 to 58
Flinders Ports offered the section 87B undertaking (undertaking), to avoid delay and address the ACCC’s concerns about the impact that the proposed joint venture may have on the supply of container stevedoring services at Port Adelaide, South Australia.
Post-transaction, Flinders Ports would have dual roles as container stevedore and port manager, and would be responsible for allocating the necessary inputs for container stevedoring at Port Adelaide to parties who are potentially also its competitors.
Broadly, the undertaking requires Flinders Ports to:
notify the ACCC of any allocations of certain relevant land at Port Adelaide, and licences for container stevedoring at Port Adelaide;
delay settlement of any allocations of land or container stevedoring licences notified to the ACCC pursuant to the undertaking, until the ACCC has concluded a review and confirmed the outcome to Flinders Ports; and
provide written reports to the ACCC concerning approaches made to Flinders Ports by interested third parties who have sought allocations of land or container stevedoring licences from Flinders Ports.
The undertaking adequately addresses competition concerns that the proposed joint venture would increase barriers to entry in the market for container stevedoring services at Port Adelaide.
It ensures that the process used by Flinders Ports to allocate the necessary inputs for container stevedoring is transparent, and subject to review by the ACCC in accordance with the Merger Review Process Guidelines 2006.
The notification process established by the undertaking also ensures that prospective new entrants are not deterred from seeking entry by the fact of the joint venture between Flinders Ports and DP World (SA) Pty Ltd, the incumbent stevedore.
A Public Competition Assessment will be issued on the Mergers Public Register in relation to the proposed acquisition.
Vision Group is a provider of ophthalmic services. Icon Laser (Aust) Pty Ltd (Icon), a wholly owned subsidiary of Vision Group, owns and operates a number of ophthalmic consulting and surgical businesses, including the Central Queensland Eye Centre (CQEC) practice.
Icon recruited Dr Blanc to work at the Hervey Bay and Maryborough clinics of CQEC and entered into an Independent Contractor Agreement (Agreement) with him in July 2006. The Agreement concerned the terms and conditions on which Dr Blanc was engaged by Icon and included a provision confining the area in which Dr Blanc could undertake private ophthalmic practice during, and for a defined period following the termination of, the Agreement.
The Agreement was terminated following a break down in discussions between the parties. Dr Blanc commenced his own practice in Maryborough in the same region as a CQEC clinic in potential breach of the restraint clause in the Agreement. Vision Group instituted legal proceedings against Dr Blanc in relation to the alleged breach. The parties settled the dispute by way of a Deed of Release dated 17 July 2007 (Deed).
Clause 3.1(4) of the Deed provided that Dr Blanc must not perform operations at the Hervey Bay Surgical Centre located at Boat Harbour Drive, Pialba, Queensland for a period of 12 months from 18 May 2007 unless St Stephen's Hospital Hervey Bay was in liquidation and/or ceased to operate in which case Dr Blanc may perform operations at the Hervey Bay Surgical Centre.
The ACCC considers that clause 3.1(4) of the Deed constitutes an exclusionary provision for the purpose of restricting or limiting the supply by Dr Blanc at the Hervey Bay Surgical Centre of ophthalmic services to patients in the relevant geographic region of Hervey Bay and Maryborough (and thereby constraining the Hervey Bay Surgical Centre from competing in the market).
Cotton On Clothing Pty Ltd operates 164 retail stores throughout Australia.
Between April and May this year, Cotton On Clothing retail outlets made available for sale to consumers a Home Boots footwear product.
Video Ezy proposed a variation to the section 87B undertaking (undertaking) accepted by the ACCC on 18 September 2007 in relation to Video Ezy’s acquisition of the Blockbuster business in Australia.
Broadly, the variation:
allows Video Ezy to introduce and offer a new point-of-sale system (POS) to the Blockbuster network of franchisees
provides that the Video Ezy and Blockbuster POS systems will operate on separately operated and located servers
provides for the separation of the marketing teams for Video Ezy and Blockbuster networks with regard to the separate POS systems
prohibits confidential POS system information from being shared between the networks
provides that franchisees are not obliged to use centralised pricing and can override such pricing
provides that compliance training will include the obligations relating to confidential information and confidential POS system information, in particular for information technology personnel.