Displaying items by tag: competition and consumer act

Public sector agencies have been warned to be alert to the potential for collusion between bidders during procurement processes, following a recent ACCC investigation where departmental processes contemplated cooperation by competing businesses on government tenders.

ACCC chair Rod Sims has hailed the introduction of Australian Competition Law and the Competition and Consumer Act 10 years ago as a game changer that allowed for the ACCC and state and territory regulators to collaborate much more easily, and heralded a new era in Australian consumer protection by introducing a single national consumer law and civil penalties.

Australia’s electricity retailers and generators are prohibited from keeping consumer and small business electricity prices unnecessarily high when costs fall, under new guidelines issued by the competition regulator, the ACCC, aimed at protecting consumers and businesses from excessive electricity prices.

A group of telecommunications carriers and consumers has called on federal parliament not to pass amendments that would remove competition protection measures in the Competition and Consumer Act.

ACCC chairman, Rod Sims, has released a new version of the Commission's compliance and enforcement policy warning that he will make full use of the greater powers conferred on it by the Competition and Consumer Act to impose penalties on companies that fail to do the right thing by consumers.