Legislation to amend merger primary law framework introduced
Legislation has been introduced into the House of Representatives which would make amendments to the new acquisitions provisions of the Act. The Explanatory Memorandum states, in part:
The Bill amends the acquisitions provisions in the CCA 2010 to refine the operation of the new mandatory and suspensory merger control regime. The amendments clarify when an acquisition is not required to be notified and ensure that the consequences for failing to notify are targeted, while preserving incentives for parties to notify proposed acquisitions.
The Bill replaces the automatic voiding of acquisitions that are required to be notified but are not (known as non-notified acquisitions), and that are put into effect, with a court‑supervised voidable model, under which such an acquisition is voided only on application by the Commission to the Federal Court (Court).
The Bill also clarifies the scope of the control exemption in section 51ABS of the CCA 2010 to seek to ensure that acquisitions which are unlikely to confer competitively significant influence over the target are not inadvertently captured, including where parties enter into arrangements such as minority shareholder agreements that do not provide the capacity for practical influence or joint control. These amendments improve the targeting and proportionality of the merger control regime while maintaining strong protections against anti-competitive acquisitions.
The Bill also enables merger parties to seek extensions from the Commission for the period in which they can put an approved acquisition into effect where there are reasonable delays. The Commission may grant an extension for up to 6 months and may do this more than once where appropriate.
Introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 July 2026
Schedule 4 deals with ‘Critical changes to the merger primary law framework’
Schedule 5 deals with ‘Amendments to implement the National Competition Policy Agreement’
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