Everything about The Australian Competition And Consumer Commission totally explained
The
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is an independent authority of the
government of Australia. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the
Australian Trade Practices Commission (TPC) and the
Prices Surveillance Authority to administer the
Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). Its mandate is to protect
consumer rights, business rights and obligations, perform industry regulation and price monitoring and prevent illegal anti-competitive behaviour.
Roles
The ACCC administers the Trade Practices Act, and has standing to take action in the
Federal Court of Australia to enforce its provision. The Trade Practices Act contains a broad range of provisions, such as provisions on
price fixing cartels, misuse of market power, and
misleading or deceptive conduct. The ACCC also reviews mergers. The ACCC, under the Act, also regulates certain industries by providing access to national infrastructure. The ACCC also has an educative role and seeks to educate both consumers and businesses as to their rights and responsibilities under the act.
The
Australian Energy Regulator is a constituent but separate part of the ACCC and is responsible for economic energy regulation. It shares staff and premises with the ACCC, but has a separate board, although at least one board member must also be a Commissioner at the ACCC.
Restrictive Trade Practices
In most cases the spirit of the act, and thus the actions of the ACCC, favours neither consumer nor supplier, but strives to achieve a competitive market without artificial restrictions. For example, refusal of supply, a producer refusing to supply a potential retailer or customer with a product isn't itself illegal unless the action would have an anti-competitive effect on the market as a whole.
Penalties
The ACCC is vigorous in bringing court actions against companies that breach the TPA. Penalties for non-compliance of the TPA can be quite severe.
Companies that don't comply with the restrictive trade practices provisions of the TPA may be fined by the Federal Court. There are three ways the maximum fine can be calculated. The maximum possible fine is the larger of AU$10,000,000; or three times the value of the illegal benefit; or (if the value of the benefit can't be ascertained) 10% of turnover for the preceding 12 months. Individuals may be fined up to AU$500,000
Companies that don't comply with the consumer protection provisions of the TPA may be fined by the Federal Court, up to $1.1 million for companies and $220,000 for individuals.
The ACCC also has power to accept, on its on behalf, court enforceable undertakings under s87B of the Trade Practices Act. Such undertakings may include a wide range of remedies to the conduct.
A range of other remedies can be ordered by the court. For example, companies are frequently forced to publish retractions of false advertising claims in national newspapers and at their places of business. Companies found in breach of the TPA are usually bound to implement a compliance program to ensure future compliance with the act.
Although the penalties permitted by the Trade Practices Act are quite severe, there has been a reluctance by the courts to impose the maximum penalty. There has been a move recently to make certain offences under competition law (such as price fixing or participation in a cartel) into criminal offences rather than purely civil breaches. It is generally thought that the possibility of being found guilty of a criminal offence -- and the possibility of a custodial sentence for executives involved -- will provide a much stronger deterrent to anti-competitive behaviour.
Consumer Confidence
The ACCC is regarded by some Australian business people as necessary but often ineffective, echoing the critics of
American anti-trust laws, while Australian consumers generally hold the ACCC in high regard. Whilst it's acknowledged that the ACCC is required to help safeguard consumer rights, there has been occasional criticism of the organisation as being "all-talk-no-action". This criticism is most likely due to the inherent difficulty in obtaining sufficient evidence to prove breaches of the RTP provisions of the TPA.
Recently the ACCC has exercised its authority in a number of retail areas, including fining retailer
Target for false advertising and
Woolworths (known as
Safeway in
Victoria) for illegally fixing the price of
bread.
Product recall
The ACCC also cares of nation wide
product recall and the following organisations are commissioned to assisting surveillance and monitoring of products quality in relevant areas .
Chairpersons
Allan Fels 1995 - 2003
Graeme Samuel 2003 -Further Information
Get more info on 'Australian Competition And Consumer Commission'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://australian_competition_and_consumer_commission.totallyexplained.com">Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
