ACCC update

As the ACCC's grocery price hearings started, the ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel gave a wide-ranging speech in Brisbane on 3 April.

Rather than a formal presentation on regulation (see this speech by ACCC Commissioner King), Samuel gave a forthright view of the ACCC's expanding role in what he described as an "exhilirating time" under the new Government including:

• draft legislation for criminal penalties for cartel conduct;
• draft legislation on component pricing;
• predatory pricing amendments to section 46 of the Trade Practices Act;
• petrol prices (it is not collusion if prices go down, it is competition);
• a description of the real time pricing monitoring of 4000 petrol retailers;
• the grocery prices inquiry;
• ACCC enforcement processes;
• telecommunications competition.

He said the ACCC now had nearly 700 staff.