Details the ACCC's activities in the enforcement of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, merger reviews, compliance actions, adjudication issues, economic regulation and international involvement.

Overview

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) play an integral role in facilitating and maintaining the operations of fair, efficient and effective markets in Australia. This has been achieved through a broad range of activities across the economy in the April to June 2014 quarter

A key focus for the ACCC and AER continues to be the Harper Review of Competition Policy (the root-and-branch-review) and the ACCC made a formal submission in June 2014. The submission elaborates on comments made by ACCC Chairman Rod Sims at the CEDA State of the Nation Conference in Canberra in June. Key elements of the submission include:

• Suggestions of microeconomic reforms that open up as many sectors as possible to competition, and allow price mechanisms to play their crucial role in signalling to businesses how to meet consumers’ needs at the lowest cost
• The importance of effective competition laws that strike a careful balance and do not inhibit healthy competitive behaviour
• Key recommendations relating to the misuse of market power provisions and so-called ‘price signalling’ provisions in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA)
• Emphasis that effective competition policy is about governments establishing the processes and institutions that continually foster competition and sustain the commitment to reform.