Criminal Cartel Bill receives Royal Assent

The Criminal Cartel Bill received Royal Assent on 26 June 2009 – it is now an Act (Act no 59 of 2009) and the cartel provisions will enter force after 28 days (24 July).

The ACCC has also released a Revised Immunity Policy for Cartel Conduct and associated interpretation guidelines. They will come into operation when the new cartel provisions come into force on 24 July. In addition to setting out the process for obtaining immunity for civil cartel conduct the new policy sets out the procedures for obtaining immunity in relation to criminal cartel offences, including the role of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) (see, in particular, Annexure B of the Prosecution Policy of the Commonwealth).

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))

EU Guidance on Article 82 published

The EU has published its much anticipated guidance document on abuse of dominance under article 82.  View the press release.  As expected, it sets out “an economic and effects-based approach to exclusionary conduct under EC antitrust law”.  The document also makes clear that the enforcement policy is focused on protecting consumers and protecting the “process of competition and not on protecting individual competitors” and expressly recognises the relevance of efficiency claims.   The full guidance document can be viewed here.  The Commission has also published an FAQ Document.