ACCC v J Hutchinson Pty Ltd (HCA)
High Court of Australia
Chief Justice Gageler and Justices Edelman, Steward, Gleeson, Beech-Jones
ACCC v J Hutchinson Pty Ltd [2025] HCA 10 (2 April 2025)
Issue: anti-competitive agreements, secondary boycotts, meaning of understanding
Catchwords
Competition and consumer law – Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) – Restrictive trade practices – Prohibition of contracts, arrangements, or understandings affecting the supply or acquisition of goods – Where head contractor succumbed to threat from union and terminated subcontract without any verbal (or written) assent being communicated to union – Whether sufficient to give rise to "understanding" in context of ss 45E(3) and 45EA of Competition and Consumer Act that head contractor succumbed to union's threat of industrial action by doing what was demanded under sanction of that threat.
Words and phrases – "acceptance", "acquisition situation", "arrangement", "arrangement or understanding", "arriving at an understanding", "assent", "communication", "communication of acceptance", "communication of assent", "consensus", "contract, arrangement or understanding", "express or tacit communication", "giving effect to an understanding", "implied promise", "implied request", "inducement", "making a contract", "making an arrangement", "manifestations of mutual consent", "meeting of minds", "offer", "performance", "proscribed purpose", "reciprocity", "secondary boycott", "threat", "threat of industrial action", "unilateral contracts".
Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) – ss 45E, 45EA, 76.
Commentary