Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)

The ACCC is an organisation with a high public profile, but if pressed, not many people would be able to tell you exactly what they did and how there decisions affect you.

The ACCC is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, formed as a national agency in 1995 to promote competition and fair trade in the market place by administering, amongst other legislation, the Trade practices Act. It also regulates national infrastructure services (i.e. Gas, Airports, Rail).

The remit of the ACCC can be split into 3 areas;

Consumer Rights

In protecting the consumer the ACCC is known as the watchdog, it keeps an eye on misleading conduct, guarantees, warranties and refunds and Scams such as Pyramid selling. They have also been involved in providing information on high profile consumer items such as Petrol pricing and Mobile phones.
The banks have long been a target of the ACCC with regard to Credit card surcharges and bank fees. And the 'A Current Affair' & 'Today Tonight' favourite; hidden fees or charges. Much of the consumer protection they provide is out of the public eye, such as goods labelling (incl; health warnings) and safety information.

Business Rights

Covering the way that businesses deal with customers, either consumers or other businesses. This mainly entails not using a prominent market position to take unfair advantage either by predatory pricing, price fixing, anti-competitive conduct or restrictive trade practices. Many of the decisions made by the ACCC are subjective and can be linked to 'unconscionable conduct' especially in relation to cartels.

Industry Regulation & Price Monitoring

This is the real 'meat' of the work that the ACCC does that affects trading and investment. Where companies are always looking to cut costs by the merger of 2 dominant players in a particular industry they have to gain approval from the ACCC and be placed on the Mergers and acquisition register.

The regulation of Mergers and acquisitions can affect deals such as; One Steel / Smorgon Steel, Alinta / AGL, Tabcorp / Unitab.

As Graeme Samuel used to be a merchant banker it is said that he will look for compromise rather than confrontation so it is fairly rare that mergers are knocked back. But saying that any speculation that is built into a share price on the basis of a positive decision from the ACCC can quickly disipate if there are any adverse comments emanating from the offices of the ACCC.