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Australia: Are You Ready For The New Cartel Act? |
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Written by Michael Corrigan
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Wednesday, 01 July 2009 10:23 |
The Trade Practices Amendment (Cartel Conduct and Other Measures) Act 2009 has now been passed by Federal Parliament and will introduce significant changes to trade practices law in Australia. This includes the ACCC's expanded investigatory powers, and immunity for cartel whistleblowers.
The Act introduces:
- new criminal cartel offences, with 10 year jail terms, for cartel conduct such as price fixing, market sharing, and bid rigging, where the conduct is carried out with "knowledge or belief" that it involves cartel conduct, and
- two new civil offences for making or giving effect to a contract, arrangement or understanding with a competitor which either:
- restricts or limits a party's production or capacity to supply services, or
- controls, governs or affects the making of competitive bids in a tender.
The new offences will come into force 28 days after the Act receives Royal Assent, which is expected within the next few days.
Are you ready?
The full article is available in full from Mondaq.
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