Glossary

Terms and abbreviations

  • Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

    The ACCC is an independent Commonwealth statutory authority. It is responsible for enforcing the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and a range of other legislation.

  • Australian Competition Tribunal

    Formerly the Trade Practices Tribunal. Provided for in Part III of the CCA.

    President and Deputy Presidents must be judges of the Federal Court. Members must be experienced in industry, commerce, economics or public administration.

    The Tribunal’s main function is to hear appeals from decisions of the ACCC relating to authorisation and notification. There is also a review function in relation to the access regime.

    The Tribunal’s powers have increased since the passage of the 2006 Amendment Act - importantly, the Tribunal now hears merger authorisations applications directly and they hear appeals from formal merger clearance decisions of the ACCC.

    See also: Justice John Middleton, 'What will the Australian Competition Tribunal do now without LImited Merits Review?' (FCA) [2018] FedJSchol 7

  • Australian Securities and Investment Commission

    According to the ASIC website: “ASIC is Australia's integrated corporate, markets, financial services and consumer credit regulator.

    ASIC is an independent Australian Government body. We are set up under and administer the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (ASIC Act), and we carry out most of our work under the Corporations Act.“

  • Australian Energy Regulator

  • Parties wishing to engage in conduct that may infringe the competition law provisions of the Act may seek advanced authorisation on an individual basis. The ACCC may authorise the conduct on competition and/or public benefit grounds (depending on the conduct) and, while authorised, that conduct will not contravene the Act. The party seeking authorisation bares the onus of proving the conduct satisfies the authorisation criteria.

    See authorisation page for more details.

  • Agreements or understandings between competitors

    See cartels page for details.

  • Competition and Consumer Act 2010

    This is the key legislation dealing with competition and consumer law in Australia.

  • Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution

    Responsible for prosecuting criminal cartel conduct

  • Consumer Data Right

  • Process of rivalry.

    The Competition and Consumer Act prohibits certain conduct which has the purpose or effect of substantially lessening competition, including the misuse of market power.

    The Act does not define competition for this purpose, save to state (section 4) that it includes:

    (a) competition from goods that are, or are capable of being, imported into Australia; and

    (b) competition from services that are rendered, or are capable of being rendered, in Australia by persons not resident or not carrying on business in Australia.

    In 2014 the Harper Review Issues Paper described competition and competition policy in the following terms (emphasis added):

    ‘Competition is the process by which rival businesses strive to maximise their profits by developing and offering desirable goods and services to consumers on the most favourable terms’ [para 1.1]

    ‘Competition policy is a set of policies and laws that protects, enhances and extends competition’ [para 1.7]

    The Harper Review Issues Paper listed some of the benefits of competitive markets as follows:

    “Lower resource costs and overall prices, better services and more choice for consumers and businesses, stronger discipline on businesses to keep costs down, faster innovation and deployment of new technology, and better information, allowing more informed choices by consumers” (page 1)

  • Independent Review of the Competition Provisions of the Trade Practices Act (completed January 2003)

    Chaired by Sir Daryl Dawson

    View Dawson Report

  • Section 47 of the CCA prohibits certain forms of Exclusive Dealing conduct. This includes a range of conduct falling short of genuine exclusivity arrangements, but requires a purpose or effect of substantially lessening competition to be established.

  • The Federal Court (with limited exceptions) has exclusive jurisdiction over competition law matters in Australia.

    This is provided for in section 86 of the CCA.

  • Australian Government. Although Australia is a federation and has federal and state governments, ‘Government’ is used throughout these pages to refer to the Federal Government which has primary responsibility for competition law and policy.

    View timeline of Australian Governments.

  • Mergers, Takeovers and Monopolies: Profiting from Competition?

    Report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs (1989)

    This Committee was established to 'examine and inquire into the adequacy of existing legislative controls over mergers, takeovers and monopolisation', particularly with respect to the extent of merger and monopolisation control necessary to safeguard the public interest.

  • Competition Policy Review (2015)

    Chaired by Professor Ian Harper

  • Report by the Independent Committee of Inquiry (National Competition Policy) 1993

    Chaired by Professor Fred Hilmer.

    The Report recommended the implementation of a national competition policy.

    The Inquiry found that there was 'strong and widespread community support' for the implementation of a national competition policy and the benefits such a policy could have for improving international competitiveness.

  • International Competition Network

    In 2001 an international competition network was established, consisting of various antitrust authorities. Membership is voluntary but has increased dramatically since the ICN’s inception; 14 member states launched the ICN (including Australia)

  • National Broadband Network

  • National Competition Council

    Provided for in Part IIA of the CCA.

    The Council was introduced as a result of the Hilmer Reforms in 1995. It is composed of a President and three other members, having the primary roles of advising about competition law matters and making recommendations in relation to access declarations.

  • Productivity Commission

    Independent research and advisory body on economic, social and environmental issues.

    Chair since 2018 is Michael Brennan

  • Resale Price Maintenance

    A form of vertical price fixing that is prohibited per se in Australia

    See RPM page.

  • Trade Practices Commission

    Became the ACCC in 1995

  • Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth)

    Re-named Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)

Economic terms and abbreviations

  • Average Avoidable Cost

  • Average Fixed Cost

  • Average Total Cost

  • Average Variable Cost

  • Where there is an existing monopolist in market, use of prevailing price as proxy for competitive price in a SSNIP analysis will incorrectly lead to the rejection of the monopolised market as a relevant market - often resulting in the incorporation of implausible substitutes (named after the case of United States v El du Pont De Nemours & Co 351 US 377 (1956))

  • Process of rivalry

  • Extent to which demand changes in response to price change

  • Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (concentration metrix; in merger cases HHI is calculated by adding the sum of the squares of the post-merger market shares of each of the merging firms and each rival in the identified market. This estimates the level of market concentration both before and post merger - the change in concentration is referred to as the 'delta')

  • Hypothetical Monopolist Test

  • Describes a firm's market power - defined as L = P-MC/P = 1/[E] (where E = elasticity of demand) (resulting index ranges between high of 1 (more market power) and low of 0 (no MP) (so the closer it is to 0 the closer it is to a perfectly competitive market; the closer to 1 the closer to monopoly)

  • Long-run Average Incremental Cost

  • Field of rivalry between firms in which there is substitution in response to changing prices

    In QCMA the Tribunal defined market as the field of rivalry between firms in which there is 'substitution between one product and another, and between one source of supply and another, in response to changing prices.’

    Section 4E of the Act expressly refers to substitution in the context of defining markets.

  • Section 46 employs the concept of ‘substantial market power’. A number of additional sub-sections assist in determining whether a company has substantial market power and make clear that it is possible for more than one corporation to have substantial market power

  • Refers to the cost of producing the last unit of output

  • Return on Capital Investment

  • Rate of Return

  • For a comprehensive summary of the case law on SLC, see Peter Armitage, 'The evolution of the substantial lessening of competition test – a review of case law' (2016) 44 Australian Business Law Review 74. See also John Kench, 'Substantial Lessening of Competition' (Competition Law Conference, Sydney, 21 May 2016)

    In Australia a ‘but for’ test is typically used to examine competitive impact of conduct that has already taken place.

    In the Dandy Power case Smithers J stated: “To apply the concept of substantially lessening competition in a market, it is necessary to assess the nature and extent of the market, the probable nature and extent of competition which would exist therein but for the conduct in question, the way the market operates and the nature and extent of the contemplated lessening. To my mind one must look at the relevant significant portion of the market, ask oneself how and to what extent there would have been competition therein but for the conduct, assess what is left and determine whether what has been lost in relation to what would have been, is seen to be a substantial lessening of competition” [p 43,887]

    For proposed conduct the “future with and without” test is typically adopted.

  • Small but Significant Non-transitory Increase in Price

  • Weighted Average Cost of Capital

Competition law journals and reports (Aus)

  • Australian Business Law Review

  • Australian Law Journal

  • Australian Law Reports

  • Austrlaian Law Journal Reports

  • Australian Trade Practices Reports

  • Competition and Consumer Law Journal

  • Competition and Consumer Law News

  • Commonwealth Law Reports

    Official reports for the High Court

  • Federal Court Reports

    Official reporter for the Federal Court

  • Federal Law Review

  • Federal Law Reports

  • Monash University Law Review

  • Melbourne University Law Review

  • University of New South Wales Law Journal