A few days ago, on November 20th 2023 the Albanese Government’s Competition Taskforce released a Consultation Review on Australia’s laws and practices surrounding mergers. Below is information from the Treasury website on the consultation paper as well as how to make a submission and what to include. The Treasurer has also issued a media release on the consultation which is available here. Submissions for the merger consultation paper close on January 19th 2024.
Key Documents
Consultation paper 649.42 KB
Consultation paper 806.79 KB
Consultation paper – appendices 416.81 KB
Consultation paper – appendices 398.75 KB
The Competition Review is seeking public input on a variety of questions and potential changes relating to Australia’s merger rules and processes. The Review is seeking this input to help assess:
- whether Australia’s current merger rules and processes are effective, enabling beneficial mergers while addressing those that could be anti-competitive.
- in what ways Australia’s merger rules and processes could be improved.
Why is the Competition Review looking at mergers?
Competition is an important driver of economic dynamism, productivity and real wages. Competition encourages productivity gains to be passed onto consumers through lower prices or higher quality products, and to workers through higher wages. This helps to ease cost-of-living pressures over time.
Mergers can contribute to the efficient functioning of the economy, providing a way for firms to achieve economies of scale, diversify risk and exit underperforming businesses. These efficiencies can potentially be passed on to consumers through lower prices, improved quality, and a greater range of products and services.
Mergers that are anti-competitive can limit innovation, reduce the range and quality of products and services, and increase prices.
Consultation
The Competition Review has released a consultation paper and is inviting public submissions. The consultation paper covers emerging concerns related to Australia’s merger rules and processes, and presents a variety of proposed options for change.
The Competition Review Taskforce will also be engaging in targeted stakeholder engagement and meetings to gather a diversity of perspectives representing consumers, business and industry experts.
Consultation will inform the advice the Competition Review Taskforce provides to government on whether any changes should be made to Australia’s merger rules and processes.
Responding
You can submit responses to this consultation up until 19 January 2024. Interested parties are invited to comment on this consultation.
While submissions may be lodged electronically or by post, electronic lodgement is preferred. For accessibility reasons, please submit responses sent via email in a Word or RTF format. An additional PDF version may also be submitted.
All information (including name and address details) contained in submissions will be made available to the public on the Treasury website unless you indicate that you would like all or part of your submission to remain in confidence. Automatically generated confidentiality statements in emails do not suffice for this purpose. Respondents who would like part of their submission to remain in confidence should provide this information marked as such in a separate attachment.
Legal requirements, such as those imposed by the Freedom of Information Act 1982, may affect the confidentiality of your submission.
View our submission guidelines for further information.
How To Respond
competitiontaskforce@treasury.gov.au
Post
Address written submissions to:
Competition Review Taskforce
Treasury
Langton Cres
Parkes ACT 2600
Enquiries
Email: competitiontaskforce@treasury.gov.au
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