Clifford Chance
The Australian Competition Authority's 2018 report card
15 November 2018
Key issues
- ACCC has reviewed some 281 mergers in the period, with 90% subject to short form review
- First gun jumping merger case was brought by the ACCC as well as its first case brought for an anti-competitive merger proposal involving alleged agreements to close a competing business
- 2018 is the year of the criminal cartel cases in Australia with three separate criminal cartel prosecutions commenced including a high-profile case against ANZ, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup in relation to an alleged cartel arrangement involving a share underwriting arrangement
- Record penalties and fines obtained by the ACCC in 2017-18 of AU$170million with new record fine of AU$46 million against Yazaki Corporation
- Inquiry into price competition among suppliers of foreign currency conversion announced
- Digital Platforms Inquiry with a "deep dive" into Google and Facebook launched, interim report due 3 December 2018
