Significant challenges facing competition law and policy need to be confronted and solved if our market economy is to work for all Australians, ACCC Chair Rod Sims said today. Innovation, productivity and the welfare of Australians depends on there being an adequate level of competition.
ACCC Chair Rod Sims spoke at this year’s Annual Competition Law & Economics Workshop, hosted by UniSA and the ACCC, where he discussed significant challenges facing competition law and policy in Australia.
A former director of migration company Clinica Internationale Pty Ltd (Clinica), Radovan Montague Laski (aka Rod or Rodney Laski), has been declared bankrupt by the Federal Circuit Court after an ACCC application for a sequestration order.
The Court made the order following Mr Laski’s failure to pay more than $380,000 in legal costs after action by the ACCC led to a Federal Court judgment against him.
Bathroomware brand, Nero Bathrooms International Pty Ltd, trading as Nero Tapware, has admitted it was likely to have engaged in resale price maintenance by withholding supply of its products from a small independent building supplies retailer when that retailer failed to raise its advertised prices.
Funeral services provider Alex Gow Proprietary Limited (Alex Gow Funerals) has paid a penalty of $13,320 after the ACCC issued it with an infringement notice for allegedly making a false and misleading representation about the price of its funeral services and the fees that consumers are required to pay.
The Federal Court has ordered Decathlon (Australia) Pty Ltd (Decathlon) to pay penalties of $1.5 million for selling sports and recreation goods that did not comply with applicable mandatory safety standards, in breach of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
Decathlon admitted that, between January 2016 and December 2019, it supplied 432 basketball rings and backboards and 307 portable swimming pools which did not comply with the relevant Australian mandatory safety standards.
The Federal Court has found that former training college Phoenix Institute of Australia Pty Ltd (Phoenix) and its marketing arm, Community Training Initiatives Pty Ltd (CTI), made false or misleading representations and implemented systems of unconscionable conduct in relation to online diploma courses.
Phoenix and CTI were found to have misled consumers and acted unconscionably when marketing to students and enrolling them into online diploma courses in 2015 under the VET FEE-HELP loan program.
The Full Federal Court has today unanimously upheld an appeal by the ACCC in relation to Google Ads published by workplace relations advisor Employsure Pty Ltd.
The Full Court found that Employsure had breached the Australian Consumer Law by making misleading representations that it was, or was affiliated with, a government agency, overturning the judgment of Justice Griffiths that dismissed this claim at first instance.
The ACCC has instituted separate proceedings in the Federal Court against each of Telstra Corporation Ltd (Telstra), Optus Internet Pty Limited (Optus), and TPG Internet Pty Ltd (TPG) for making alleged false or misleading representations in their promotions of some 50Mbps and 100Mbps NBN plans, in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.
The ACCC has lodged an appeal against the Federal Court’s decision to dismiss the ACCC’s proceedings against NSW Ports Operations Hold Co Pty Ltd and its subsidiaries Port Botany Operations Pty Ltd and Port Kembla Operations Pty Ltd (together, NSW Ports).