Australia’s criminal-cartel offenses highlight the pitfalls of antitrust prosecutions

MLex Market Insight

News

4.9 • 9 Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2020

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the first criminal-cartel prosecutions in over 100 years start to percolate through Australia’s legal system, MLex’s local team of reporters examines how the country’s competition watchdog has used the offenses to tackle anticompetitive agreements. In a new, in-depth special report, we examine the challenges faced by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, along with the defense strategies put forward by the accused companies and individuals. We also contemplate how similar legislation now adopted by New Zealand may mold the antitrust landscape in that country.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, welcome to this special edition of Emlex's podcast.
0:14.3	We're leaping into your feed a bit earlier this week to have a chat about our new special report,
0:18.9	which is now at our website, Mlexmarketinsight.com,
0:22.7	ready for you to download and enjoy. My name is James Panicki. I'm Emlex's Asia Pacific
0:28.5	Senior Editor. I'm also the co-author of this special report, which focuses on the implementation
0:34.1	of criminal cartel legislation in Australia and the development of criminal
0:38.8	cartel offences in New Zealand.
0:40.5	And we'll be crossing to Sydney to talk to the other co-author of this special report,
0:45.0	Laurel Henning, in just a few minutes' time.
0:47.3	The context of this is that the implementation of the criminal cartel offences in Australia
0:51.9	has granted us a glimpse into how the transition from
0:54.9	civil to criminal can be managed, the possible pitfalls for investigators, as well as the
1:01.0	courtroom tactics that may be used by defence lawyers. As a result, we hope this report will
1:06.2	resonate with readers in other jurisdictions as well. In 2009, the government adopted criminal cartel
1:13.5	offences 100 years after previous experiments had ended in failure. The law was then
1:19.6	embraced by Australia's current competition laws, the 2010 Competition and Consumer Act. The law
1:25.9	includes maximum sentences of 10 years jail per offence
1:29.7	and penalties of up to $420,000 Australian dollars per offence. That's around 300,000 US. For
1:36.9	companies, there are fines of up to 10 million Australian dollars per offence or 10% of a
1:41.8	company's annual turnover. Australia's Competition Regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,
1:47.7	or ACCC, was very eager to have these new offences at its disposal
1:52.0	because of the deterrence they may offer.
	...

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