The ACCC’s outlook and priorities for competition enforcement

Gina Cass-Gottlieb

The ACCC’s outlook and priorities for competition enforcement’

Gina Cass-Gottlieb, ‘The ACCC’s outlook and priorities for competition enforcement’ (Competition Law Conference, Sydney, 6 May 2023)

Introduction

“I am delighted to speak to you today about the ACCC’s outlook and priorities in competition law enforcement.

Our priorities are guided by the legislative purpose to enhance the welfare of Australians through the promotion of competition and fair trading and provision for consumer protection and reflect the current issues impacting the Australian economy, consumers and businesses. The present key issues of cost of living pressures, the price of essential services including energy and telecommunications, the integrity of environmental and sustainability claims, ever increasing losses to scams, consumer and fair trading harms from manipulative marketing practices in the digital economy and the always high risk to markets, business rivals and consumers from anti-competitive conduct, strongly feature in our priorities.

Our outlook in respect of these priorities recognises that in the current economic and social circumstances of rising cost of living, Australian consumers are even more vulnerable to the effects of anti-competitive conduct that reduce competition in the supply of essential services, restrict entry or expansion of competitors, reduce choice and contribute to price escalation pressures. As the competition and consumer regulator it is more important than ever, in Professor Maureen Brunt’s words ‘to keep our eyes on the ultimate objective, namely the protection of the consumer by means of an efficient competitive process’.

In this speech, I will outline our recent experience and outlook for our cartel program, in terms of both civil and criminal proceedings, and address our enforcement focus on anti-competitive conduct more broadly.

Second, I will outline our broad compliance and enforcement perspectives in respect of the transformation to a more sustainable economy.

Finally, our work in the energy sector has taken a lot of our focus in recent months, and I will use this opportunity to discuss the competitive conditions we are observing and their importance in the context of changing regulatory frameworks.”