Competition Law Conference

The 20th Annual Competition Law Conference, organised by Chris Hodgekiss of the NSW Bar, was held in Sydney last Saturday 23 May, covering a range of current issues in competition law and policy.

The keynote speech of the Conference, ‘In Hope of Convergence – A Regional Perspective on Competition Law‘, delivered by High Court Chief Justice RS French has now been published online on the High Court’s website.  Chief Justice French paid particular attention to the new Indian competition laws, the majority of which came into operation on 20 May 2009.

Other sesssions at the Conference covered the proposed conduct of cartel litigation following the introduction of criminal penalties (including ‘the ACCC enforcement perspective on serious cartels – some key issues and practical considerations‘ by Marcus Bezzi (Executive General Manager, Enforcement & Compliance Division, ACCC) and ‘The Role of the CDPP in the Prosecution of the Proposed Cartel Offence’ Graeme Davidson (Deputy Director, CDPP). Brent Fisse (Lawyer & Senior Fellow, Melbourne Law School) followed with the paper ‘Avoidance and Denial of Liability‘, assessing potential escape routes from the new cartel laws), the complexities of representative and class action proceedings in competition law (with Dr Peter Cashman and Ben Slade) and Mergers and the availability (or otherwise) of a ‘failing firm’ defence (courtesy of Dave Poddar (Partner, Mallesons) and Tim Grimwade (ACCC))