On 25 August 2020, amendments to the Telecommunications Act 1997 came into effect that enable superfast fixed line broadband networks serving residential customers to operate on a functionally separated basis (rather than a structurally separated basis).
In particular, network operators are now able to voluntarily submit functional separation undertakings to the ACCC for approval. This is intended to provide greater commercial flexibility for superfast network operators and promote...More
The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Act 2020 (TLA Act) received Royal Assent on 25 May 2020. Among other provisions, it amends the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) (Telecommunications Act) to enable superfast fixed line broadband networks serving residential customers to operate on a functionally separated basis (rather than a structurally separated basis).
In particular, the TLA Act inserts a process into Part 8 of the...More
The Competition and Consumer (Consumer Data Right) Rules 2020 (rules) will need to be adapted to accommodate the energy sector.
We seek stakeholder views on the preliminary positions we have taken in this rules framework, to inform our development of rules for applying the Consumer Data Right to energy. Stakeholders should respond to this consultation using the current Consumer Data Right rules as a starting point.
Draft amendments to the Consumer Data Right rules for the energy...More
Recent developments in the wholesale products offered by NBN Co, which includes offering retail broadband services with speeds in excess of 100 Mbps, has promoted the ACCC to consider updating the Broadband Speed Claims - Industry Guidance (Guidance).
The ACCC is seeking views from stakeholders on a number of issues relevant to the presentation of consumer information about broadband speeds with a particular focus on services with wholesale download speeds in excess of 100 Mbps.
...More
The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Act 2020 (TLA Act) received Royal Assent on 25 May 2020. Among other provisions, it amends the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) (Tel Act) to enable superfast fixed line broadband networks serving residential customers to operate on a functionally separated basis (rather than a structurally separated basis).
In particular, the TLA Act inserts a process into Part 8 of the Tel Act, under which network operators will...More
The ACCC is seeking submissions to its discussion paper on agricultural machinery after-sales markets.
We invite farmers, dealers, repairers, industry bodies, manufacturers and other interested stakeholders to make a submission in response to the discussion paper .
Submissions
We encourage you to make a submission in response to the discussion paper.
Submissions are due by Sunday 31 May 2020.
Please provide your submission via the link below.
Alternatively,...More
The Competition and Consumer (Industry Code—Electricity Retail) Regulations 2019 (the Code) came into force on 1 July 2019. The Code, as a mandatory industry code under Part IVB of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, is binding on all retailers that supply electricity to small customers in the applicable distribution regions of New South Wales, South Australia and south-east Queensland. It sets a price cap on standing offers and specifies how prices and discounts must be advertised,...More
The ACCC is building a Conformance Test Suite (CTS) that will be a key part of the Consumer Data Right (CDR) onboarding process.
The goal of the CTS is to give the ACCC confidence that participants can enter the CDR ecosystem without disruption and are capable of conforming with the Consumer Data Standards and CDR Register Design.
Industry volunteers needed
The ACCC CTS Development Team seeks to work with industry to design and maintain the CTS on an ongoing basis to optimise...More
The ACCC is continuing its investigation into button battery safety and considering the options of implementing a mandatory safety and information standard for button batteries and products containing button batteries under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
For the purposes of the ACCC's investigation, button cell batteries and coin cell batteries are each referred to as 'button batteries'. In the battery industry, the term 'coin' is associated with lithium batteries and the...More
The ACCC is consulting with stakeholders about their experiences in relation to purchasing, servicing and repairing agricultural machinery.
This survey is open to people who have purchased agricultural machinery in Australia in the last ten years. Other parties with an interest in agricultural machinery are invited to provide a submission to our discussion paper .
The ACCC is seeking to better understand:
options available to farmers in the event of problems with...More
The ACCC has now concluded its consultation on the Draft Guidelines on Part XICA – Prohibited conduct in the energy market. The public submissions we received are available above.
Part XICA was introduced into the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA) following the passing of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct) Act 2019 . It includes new prohibitions on particular conduct in energy markets.
The ACCC released its final Guidelines on 11 May 2020....More
The ACCC is seeking views on our proposed revised timetable for the commencement of consumer data sharing by the non-major Authorised Deposit-Taking Institutions (ADIs) in the Consumer Data Right (CDR) regime.
We are also seeking feedback on when non-major ADIs intend to participate in the CDR regime as data holders and whether you also intend to become an accredited data recipient.
The proposed timetable follows the ACCC announcement on the update to the CDR timelines made 20...More
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) invites you to have your say on the issues and policy options in the consultation paper on the review of the information standard on cosmetics ingredient labelling. The issues in this paper have been briefly summarised below, please refer to the document for further details.
The ACCC prefers submissions to be provided via the ACCC consultation hub.
Alternatively, submissions can also be made via post to:
Director...More
The ACCC has now concluded its initial consultation on Part XICA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA). The public submissions we received are available above.
Part XICA was introduced into the CCA following the passing of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct) Act 2019 . It includes new prohibitions on particular conduct in energy markets.
The ACCC released its final Guidelines on 11 May 2020. The Draft Guidelines were released, for...More
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) invites you to have your say on the issues and policy options in the consultation paper on toys for children up to and including 36 months of age which contain button batteries . The issues in this paper have been briefly summarised below, please refer to the document for further details.
The ACCC prefers submissions to be provided via the ACCC consultation hub.
Alternatively, submissions can also be made via post to:...More
The ACCC is conducting an inquiry into markets for tradeable water rights in the Murray-Darling Basin.
We invite you to contribute to the Inquiry by responding to the ACCC's Issues Paper and/or by attending a public forum.
Submissions
We encourage you to make a submission in response to the ACCC's Issues Paper . Responses to the Issues Paper are due by 29 November 2019.
The ACCC prefers submissions to be provided via the link below, but the Inquiry team can also be...More
The ACCC is hosting a series of public forums in November to hear the views of those engaged in, or affected by, markets for tradeable water rights in the Murray-Darling Basin.
In particular, we invite irrigators, investors, water brokers, service providers facilitating the trading of water, environmental water holders, urban water authorities, irrigation infrastructure operators, indigenous users and community members, and market advisors and analysts to attend a forum to share their...More
The ACCC seeks your views on its draft guidelines regarding claims in price inquiries under section 95ZN of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).
The guidelines provide information about the approach taken by the ACCC in assessing whether to disclose information under section 95ZN of the CCA where that information has been:
provided to the ACCC under section 95ZK of the CCA, or
made available to the ACCC in submissions to a price inquiry, or given...More
The ACCC's Compliance and Enforcement Policy and Priorities sets out our priority areas for compliance and enforcement activities and lists the primary factors we will consider when deciding to pursue issues or matters.
Feedback from businesses and consumers is invaluable when drafting this policy and past feedback has directly influenced our priority areas.
We are seeking your views on our current priority areas and asking you to identify new issues that might be causing consumer...More
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) invites you to have your say on the issues and policy options in the consultation paper on the review of the mandatory safety standards for portable fire extinguishers.
The ACCC prefers submissions to be provided via the ACCC consultation hub.
Alternatively, submissions can also be made via post to:
Director
Standards & Policy
Consumer Product Safety Branch
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
GPO...More
The ACCC has formed a taskforce to investigate the safety of button batteries and products that contain them. As part of this investigation, the ACCC is seeking information from stakeholders to understand the extent of any market failure in the supply of button battery consumer products and whether regulation under the Australian Consumer Law is necessary to address their hazards.
As part of this process, the ACCC has released the Button Battery Safety Issues Paper (available...More
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is considering an application from Humane Farm Animal Care to register a certification trade mark (CTM).
The CTM intends to certify that animal derived products bearing the mark have complied with Humane Farm Animal Care’s livestock and poultry welfare standards. The mark bears the words ‘CERTIFIED HUMANE,’ and is illustrated below.
The a pplicant
The applicant is Humane Farm...More
The ACCC seeks your views on its draft guidelines about the repeal of subsection 51(3) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA).
Prior to its repeal, subsection 51(3) of the CCA provided a limited exemption for some intellectual property-related conduct from some anti-competitive conduct prohibitions in Part IV of the CCA. On 13 September 2019, this exemption will cease to apply.
Following the repeal of subsection 51(3), conduct involving intellectual property rights...More
Economic regulation in Australia: Still fit for purpose?
The 2019 ACCC/AER Regulatory Conference will be held at the Sofitel Brisbane Central on Thursday 1 August (commencing at 8:30am) and
Friday 2 August (finishing at 12:30pm, followed by lunch from 12:30-1:30).
The cost to attend the conference is $1500 per delegate, or $1400 per delegate for 3 or more people from the same organisation.
This online registration form provides for up to 3 delegates from the same...More
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) invites you to have your say on the issues and policy options in the consultation paper on the review of the information standard on care labelling for clothing and textile products. The issues in this paper have been briefly summarised below, please refer to the document for further details.
The ACCC prefers submissions to be provided via the ACCC consultation hub.
Alternatively, submissions can also be made via post to:...More
The ACCC has conducted an investigation into quad bike safety, including considering the merits of implementing a safety standard for quad bikes under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
The ACCC has made a recommendation to the Assistant Treasurer to make a mandatory safety standard. A copy of the report and the draft mandatory standard are available below.
The Assistant Treasurer is seeking submissions on the exposure draft mandatory safety standard recommended by the ACCC.
...More
The Competition and Consumer (Industry Code—Electricity Retail) Regulations 2019 (the Code) will come into force on 1 July 2019. The Code, as a mandatory industry code under Part IVB of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, is binding on all retailers that supply electricity to small customers in the applicable distribution regions of New South Wales, South Australia and south-east Queensland. It sets a price cap on standing offers and specifies how prices and discounts must be advertised,...More
The ACCC has published draft rules for the Consumer Data Right (CDR) in the banking sector. The ACCC is seeking feedback from consumers, businesses and community organisations on the approach and positions of the draft rules, including the privacy aspects.
The CDR is a competition and consumer reform announced by the Australian Government in May 2018 which will allow consumers to require a company such as their bank to share their data with another accredited service provider such as a...More
The ACCC is seeking to better understand the number of stakeholders interested in being accredited under the Consumer Data Right (CDR) regime, including intended timing. This information will assist us in planning the implementation of CDR in the banking sector.
If you are likely to seek to become an accredited data recipient, or are an authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) who will be a data holder, we are interested to hear from you.
We will conduct a pilot program prior to...More
The ACCC is seeking feedback from interested stakeholders on the proposed models for consumers to access their data in the energy market. Your views will help us form a position on the preferred data access model for the application of the consumer data right (CDR) in energy .
The consultation paper sets out three options for the energy data access model, and our views on relevant principles and considerations for the assessment of these options.
The CDR is a competition and...More