Contact: Tony Stumm, Partner; Carter Newell (Queensland, Australia)
In an address to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, the Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Rod Sims, released the watchdog’s Compliance and Enforcement Policy (Policy) for 2015. It could be argued that 2014 was a year where perhaps too much of the Commission’s focus was directed inwardly, due in large part to its ‘financial inefficiency’ in what Sims had called his ‘major focus’. This inefficiency has subsequently been allayed by a 12.5% reduction in staff, significant restructuring and an extra $20million in funding from the Federal Government. However, the Policy indicates that the year ahead will see the ACCC build on its productivity by focusing its actions and directing its resources in an informed and considered manner towards both longstanding and emerging concerns. The ACCC Chairman announced a bolstered commitment to enduring issues such as anti-competitive agreements, misuse of market power and product safety, while also putting certain key players on notice as to the ACCC’s annual ‘plan of attack’, including franchisors, businesses tendering for major government contracts, stakeholders across the breadth of the medicine and health sectors, and even governmental departments that are preparing for proposed public asset sales or leases.
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